Collecting Spider Webs, Nature, Mushrooms, On My Early Morning Walk!

I have a nature collecting book I go at a Second Hand shop and I love the ideas in it.  It tells how to collect spider webs, who'da thought?

Here is how I tried it and not perfect but a start:
If there is a spider it the web, touch i with s blade of grass for it to  leave.
Hold White Spray paint about a foot away and lightly spray the web.
With Black Matte heavy card stock, gently get under the web and lift it onto the paper, Straight Up!
Let the paper dry for two days before touching it.

Oh la la! Well, I just got pieces at it stayed attached to the sides
I could got get the complete orb but I got strings of it.
That is satisfactory for  me. And, I will keep trying now and then.
They will be good backgrounds for my nature findings.
Try it yourself and see how they turn out!

Here is a web before I sprayed it and after spray before I collected the web
Before

After

I added it to the long black piece that was not completely covered.
It was really pretty large to get under one piece of paper anyway as I cannot get directly underneath it.
I was going in from the side to collect what I could and it distorted the web but I still ran my paper under it and pulled straight up by the way, yes, Pull straight up!


I have been working on cleaning off my porch to hang our under the porch hammock, we have one in the yard but it has rained so often here it just stays wet.

My husband got in it to read and of course Emma and Bailey wanted to be close to him. I sit in the chair a lot in the mornings to look at our wall of nature growing and stones. I took the stone photo in the rain, they just shine when wet is why I love them so.

Do you see the heart stones in the second photo?

You can see from the inside porch photos, the wall is clay and very shady, so I can't get much to grow there, I just finally let nature take over, there are many blooming ( weeds) growing there. But, I do native gardening so they are OK for me.

I am still finding the chocolate covered mushroom rosettes ( Deceptive Craterellus) growing across the street in the forest.
They are so pretty to me.

We also have many Amanita Mushrooms growing in our yard,

 A Panther Amanita tan color

As I walked up the hill to my neighbors house, I really freaked out when I saw these, they are the size of saucers and plates ( yes!)  I should have had a ruler with me, and they cover maybe 5 feet of ground space or more. I did not get them all in the shoot.

I think I will be returning here for more. pictures! And more morning photos an inch size mushroom under the spider web

Leaves are turning colors

Teeny Tiny mushroom growing on the beautiful moss

These are pod sprouts on a nearby forest tree

Thanks for going with me on my morning walk today!

Marigolds, putting the garden to bed!

Marigolds, putting the garden to bed!

I guess I may be the only person in the world to take my marigolds for granted. I have always had them for their beautiful colors but, they have never grown for me as well as they did this year!  In fact, everything I planted has grown surprisingly well!

This was the first year for us to have ever had a real garden, well, sort of, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and peppers. I planted marigolds in the garden because I had read they keep bugs away and to have them around your tomatoes! We did, the tomatoes are gone but, the marigolds have been still blooming and doing  fabulous! 

I was invited to a new blog board called "Storylane" and of course I just love that name. On my second invitation I decided to check it out and I love it.  a poster " Jane" showed her marigold potpourri stash she had dried and I thought OK, I can do that too!   We have been expecting a freeze and I know they will disappear then and I also needed to much and clean up the garden bed.

I started trying to rake around the marigolds to get the leaves under them and around on top of them. The leaves here are huge and we have ALOT of them and I didn't want them to suffocate my plants so I have been mowing the leaves and mulching them to put in my plant beds.  This is taking some time as we have so many and they reappear every day. We do live in the Nantahala Forest.

Well, they were breaking  off, their little heads were so weak so I went and got a screen, scissors, garden gloves, mini rake, and went to work cutting them from their bases and cutting the beautiful yellow and gold flower heads onto my screen to take to dry. While I was cutting these, I started noticing the stem leaves look like little ferns and then, OH THE JOY! the buds to open on the stems below the big heads are full of tiny Lilliputian bugs in a whole new world to me. They are so beautiful and colorful. The leaves may be turning a beautiful purple and the tiny heads were gorgeous reds, pinks, purples, and touches of yellow. I was so fascinated by them I started adding them to my cuttings and I ended up with four screens full of leaves, buds, and flowers!

Then my husband served me a hot cup of coffee in my beautiful Fall Mountain cup which blended beautifully with the marigold colors so I had to take a photo. It was so good as it was cold yesterday and we still have not had our freeze but it will be soon and I am more ready for it. I am just let the gardens rest knowing I have done what I have learned about for the winter.  

I am still unsure if I need to cut back my eucalyptus plants, I pray if returns next year. It did OK last year by just being re-plated from our move and mulching it real good.   This has been our first year in the cabin and our first planting season is done. 

It has been a joy and I have enjoyed being outdoors so much this year. I am still so slow at unpacking the house with all the stuff I moved and It just won't fit so I head outdoors where I can control a little bit better. But, I have to face it!, many things have to go! I have to part with many of my loved but really un-needed things. I just like to surround myself with memories of collections I have saved. Beautiful things to me are satisfying, but not so much when it is so crowded and unable to even unpack from their boxes so that will be my winter work.

 My husband made me this fabulous old fashioned meat loaf dinner last night too, It was so pretty and GOOD, I have to share his work! 

Smiles, Cyndi