Nanaimo Hike

Sunday was our day in Nanaimo, and we spent most of it in this beautiful park. We went there for mushrooms.

And it didn't disappoint. We did find lots of oysters. Not all of them were in the best shape, but we did bring home a nice bag that we split with my step-dad, pw.

We carried on down the trail that led to the water. It was beautiful.

This was all of the wildlife I saw.

The wildflowers

Stonecrop was everywhere.

The Starfish were abundant. They're a bit difficult to see in the photo, but they are all over the rocks underwater.

There were also lots of Jellyfish. Very cool looking.

The rock along the coast was all carved out like this, and there were little tidepools all over teeming with life.

This is what I want my garden to look like: moss, stonecrop, rocks, and shrubs.

pw's daughter found this starfish with a missing leg. I took a few photos before we put it back into the water.

Looking toward Gabriola Island.

Pleurotus ostreatus

db and I were out for a walk in the woods in our local park. We weren't mushroom hunting, but I did bring my quick reference guide with me because it's a handy thing to have.

About half way along the looped trail I looked up at this dead tree and saw something that looked like oyster mushrooms. Upon closer inspection, we realized that we had found a great source; however, they were a bit high up the tree. I found a fallen branch long enough to knock a few mushrooms down and we collected a nice handful (enough for 1 meal).

The ones in the photos are the ones we could not reach. They were so high up, and in these great clusters. I think db momentarily thought about climbing the tree somehow, but that was an unrealistic scenario.

I think if we go back to this spot we could find more. There was also a log on the ground with more oysters to easily collect.

After that we were on the lookout for more. There's one spot we visited last year where we found the angel wings (another pleurotus) that we thought we should re-visit to look for oysters. Hopefully we can find time to do that.

Next weekend we're headed to Nanaimo to visit with my step-dad (pw) and his daughter, and her step-dad (never mind it's a long story). pw said he has great spot for oysters, and he even found a morel there. I can't wait.

I thought I should at least include a picture of Gigi because you can never have enough cat photos to look at.