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The frequent reader of these tappings will recall that upon concluding our mushroom-hunting escapade of last Sunday, Feht and I agreed to go out today for another hunt. However, due to circumstances attributable to the vagaries of life, Feht was unable to participate, and if I had an ounce of sense in my body, I would have stayed in bed this morning, gathering strength for the final "push" to get our stuff out of our former store.
No way, José!
I was on the road at 6:30 am, having emptied the car of all excess weight (read: yesterday's last load), and decided to try my luck out at Williams Lake, out (way out) on Piedra Road. Here's a shot of the country I was headed for:
I don't get too many chances to go out to Williams; Galina and I went out there in the middle of this past June, to sample some food, but not to walk around. Aside from that one sojourn, it's been nearly three years since I've walked through the forest out there. (Imagine that! Three years!)
My favorite spot out there has been declared a "Colorado Habitat" area, meaning that you have to have bought a $10 stamp in order to legally be in the area (think of it as a license to walk around in the woods). However, there is a lot of real estate out there that is not part of the habitat, so I managed to hunt for mushrooms anyway.
Part of my haul was about two dozen fine chanterelles, which I was careful to harvest so as to minimize the amount of dirt adhering to the specimens. A few years ago, when I wasn't so careful, and ended up having to wash those golden morsels to free them of various bits and pieces of the forest floor, I learned the hard way that getting chanterelles wet was not a good idea. Upon returning home, I fried three of the larger mushrooms and ate them with a couple of eggs cooked sunny-side up. Heaven!
As I had budgeted 3 hours for the whole foray, I began to edge back along Piedra Road, and ran across some fine boletes not far from the turnoff for Williams Lake, which I believe to be Red-Capped Scaber Stalks (or a close relative). (I'd post a shot of one of them, except that Flickr is down for maintenance right now.) When I got home, the boletes went straight into the dehydrator.
At about 10:15 am, Galina and I returned to the store for the final push. I spent time taking down the plywood shelves (made of 4 x 8 panels) above the back door, while Galina brought some additional items over to the kids place (we had stopped off last night to drop off the fish tank). At around 2 pm, Vivi H., one of our first friends after we moved to Pagosa, stopped by and dragged us off to have lunch.
We had lunch at Farrago's, which is where Galina and I had the fish taco the other day, and had a pretty good time. Galina related my mushrooming adventures, which seemed to surprise Vivi ("You mean you pick them, like, out of the ground?"). The food was good, the company was engaging, and the espresso was excellent.
Despite the espresso, upon our returning to the store at 2:15 pm, Galina did not object to the idea of going home for a nap. As it turned out I slept until close to 6 pm, whereupon we went back to the store for yet another session.
As I write this, the store is virtually empty. There wasn't enough room in the car to fit my bicycle, nor a bunch of glass shelves that were the bane of my existence (I kept imagining some overly energetic 4-year-old running into them). Other than that, the place is empty and ready to surrender to the owner's rep, who has really been gracious.
For the record, my FastMail account has been inaccessible for the entire day, and the latest update from their status blog is that I may be out of touch for another day. Considering I'm one of their "upper tier" customers, I think that's well and truly unacceptable, but it's late and venting here won't bring access back any sooner.
Cheers...
No way, José!
I was on the road at 6:30 am, having emptied the car of all excess weight (read: yesterday's last load), and decided to try my luck out at Williams Lake, out (way out) on Piedra Road. Here's a shot of the country I was headed for:
I don't get too many chances to go out to Williams; Galina and I went out there in the middle of this past June, to sample some food, but not to walk around. Aside from that one sojourn, it's been nearly three years since I've walked through the forest out there. (Imagine that! Three years!)
My favorite spot out there has been declared a "Colorado Habitat" area, meaning that you have to have bought a $10 stamp in order to legally be in the area (think of it as a license to walk around in the woods). However, there is a lot of real estate out there that is not part of the habitat, so I managed to hunt for mushrooms anyway.
Part of my haul was about two dozen fine chanterelles, which I was careful to harvest so as to minimize the amount of dirt adhering to the specimens. A few years ago, when I wasn't so careful, and ended up having to wash those golden morsels to free them of various bits and pieces of the forest floor, I learned the hard way that getting chanterelles wet was not a good idea. Upon returning home, I fried three of the larger mushrooms and ate them with a couple of eggs cooked sunny-side up. Heaven!
As I had budgeted 3 hours for the whole foray, I began to edge back along Piedra Road, and ran across some fine boletes not far from the turnoff for Williams Lake, which I believe to be Red-Capped Scaber Stalks (or a close relative). (I'd post a shot of one of them, except that Flickr is down for maintenance right now.) When I got home, the boletes went straight into the dehydrator.
At about 10:15 am, Galina and I returned to the store for the final push. I spent time taking down the plywood shelves (made of 4 x 8 panels) above the back door, while Galina brought some additional items over to the kids place (we had stopped off last night to drop off the fish tank). At around 2 pm, Vivi H., one of our first friends after we moved to Pagosa, stopped by and dragged us off to have lunch.
We had lunch at Farrago's, which is where Galina and I had the fish taco the other day, and had a pretty good time. Galina related my mushrooming adventures, which seemed to surprise Vivi ("You mean you pick them, like, out of the ground?"). The food was good, the company was engaging, and the espresso was excellent.
Despite the espresso, upon our returning to the store at 2:15 pm, Galina did not object to the idea of going home for a nap. As it turned out I slept until close to 6 pm, whereupon we went back to the store for yet another session.
As I write this, the store is virtually empty. There wasn't enough room in the car to fit my bicycle, nor a bunch of glass shelves that were the bane of my existence (I kept imagining some overly energetic 4-year-old running into them). Other than that, the place is empty and ready to surrender to the owner's rep, who has really been gracious.
For the record, my FastMail account has been inaccessible for the entire day, and the latest update from their status blog is that I may be out of touch for another day. Considering I'm one of their "upper tier" customers, I think that's well and truly unacceptable, but it's late and venting here won't bring access back any sooner.
Cheers...
