Who will win? Headache or morel mushrooms?

Deer skull

Who among us has a headache?  Who among us knows it’s time to wander in the woods to the Secret Morel Mushroom Spot and determine if the elusive mushrooms will exist this year?  Or will it be a sparse year like the last one and we won’t saute a pan of the delicious wild mushrooms for dinner?

Marsh marigold leaf

Fie on the headache!  Go out in the woods, you morel-lovers.  Seek and ye shall hopefully find.  C’mon, go put on your old jeans.  Be prepared to pick off ticks.  The morels poke their shy little heads out of the ferns at the same time the hungry wood ticks seek to pry themselves into your tender skin.  Be vigilant.  Pick the scampering creatures off your jeans and sweatshirt and toss ’em in the woods.  And maybe engage in a strip search and shower later.  I’m just sayin’…

Fluffy cattail overlooks swamp

Lack of rain has kept the morels at bay thus far.  But–how many days ago?  two?  three?–we were blessed with a warm rainfall.  Perhaps the morels stretched in their underground world and aimed for the sunlight. 

Apple blossoms blooming...

I looked last week in the Secret Spot.  One morel.  That was it.  One morel.  I put it in the mesh onion bag and proceeded to take photos (with one eye still trained diligently among those dead ferns at all times!)  However, upon arriving back at the car…the mesh bag and elusive mushroom had escaped!  Nary even a single morel to bring home.

Old glass lamp tossed into the woods

I did find an old-timer’s dump back in the woods last week.  This brought back memories of childhood when Dad took my brothers and me bottle-hunting.  He urged us to look in ravines, at the edges of the woods.  The old-timers didn’t bag their garbage in plastic and take it to the dump.  They dumped it on a corner of their land.  Sometimes you can still see the remnants of the old dumps.

The magical world inside the old glass lamp

Of course, when you find an old dump you can’t immediately allow your mind to categorize it as a “dump”.  You must kindly tell your mind that it is really a treasure-trove.  Magic exists here.  And then look around to find where the magic might be hidden.  In this particular instance it was hidden in an old farmer’s lamp.  (Make a wish now!  Aladdin’s lamp–I mean Eino’s** lamp–will gift you beyond what you ever dreamed…)

Four shiny hungry black bugs congregate on green leaf

Truly, the headache seems to have disappeared during the writing of this blog!  My goodness!  Perhaps the brain was simply clogged up with too many words…it needed to get them out.  Thank you for being my aspirin, dear reader.

Now…to the morel fields!  If you’ve got any fields near you, no more excuses!  Let’s go together.  Just got to find another empty mesh onion bag.  And not lose it this time…

**Eino is a Finnish name.  Lots of Finns settled in our area of the Upper Peninsula.  Therefore, we’ll pretend our farmer who dumped the magic lamp was called Eino.  His actual name has been changed to protect the location of the Secret Morel Mushroom Spot, which shall not be divulged–ever–under threat or sweet-talking.