I counted at least 7 different kinds of mushrooms while hiking this week. I went out to photograph wildflowers, but came back with as many images of mushrooms as flowers. A local news station has reported many dogs sickened and some dead from ingesting mushrooms. I’m checking our property and keeping an eye on my dog, Charlie. He likes to taste everything.

 There were big red ones, too, but they’d been trampled by deer or elk. I like the curly ones, above, that look like a salad. I don’t know which are edible. If every summer were as wet as this year, I’d study them so I could harvest and eat the right ones. Instead, I buy my ‘shrooms at the grocery in Conifer – safer that way.

I’ve been printing for this weekend’s show, my 5th one this summer, and hoping the weather forecast is correct with only a 10% chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. If you are in Colorado, stop by the Tommyknocker’s Mining Days Festival in Idaho Springs this weekend and say hello.