The Morels are in Town!

Mark just sent me this photo.  He spotted this morel mushroom on a walk today.  Morels are a gourmet mushroom that appear elusively for a very short time in spring.  Those who hunt morels keep the location of their hunting grounds top secret, so...mum's the word here.  The mushrooms are delicious cooked fresh but can also be dried to use later.  Guess what we'll be doing this weekend?!!

Katie went on her first morel hunt when she was five - John was napping.  When you pick a mushroom, you drop it into a mesh bag (like the ones potatoes come in) so that they shake gently as you walk, releasing the spores back onto the forest floor to grow more next year.  Sometimes they're easy to find, standing right out in the middle of a clearing (bottom-ish center of photo):

But more often, they are hiding behind downed/rotten pieces of tree (right in the middle of photo):

One year, my mother-in-law gave me a bag of dried morels for my birthday and I've been very stingy with them as I was unsure when we would find more.  I guess it's time to bring out the birthday bag and re-constitute the 'shrooms!

Rain, Caffeine, Books, ahhhh....

It's sunny today but for many, many days past, it has been raining. (This is a typical Minnesota conversation opener - a comment on the weather - there's always something to talk about when you start with the weather!)  On Tuesday morning, I filled my coffee mug, pulled on my rain boots, switched on the windshield wipers and hit some local used bookstores, as well as, the book aisle at a thrift shop and oh, what a haul!  I bought books for everyone in the family plus a few gifts for friends.  I found copies of our next couple book club selections and...AND...see those books right in the middle back?  See the two on the top with mainly yellow spines?  They are Geronimo Stilton books.  Kate had nearly the whole collection when she was younger.  She loved them.  They formed the person she has become (in a good way).  And at some point, on a day I was actually cleaning house,...I got rid of them.  I can't believe I did it.  I don't know what I was thinking.  And I so regret it.  The books are so funny and clever and FULL of personality.  So, I will buy them when I see them.  I will get her collection back (even if it ends up being a graduation gift...from college!)

Jar of Sunshine

Last week was cold and windy - we had long underwear, hats and gloves on to watch baseball.  While grocery shopping, I saw these lemon drops in the bulk bin aisle and scooped out a bag to fill this jar.  When John came home from school and saw the jar, he said "Wow, what a pretty jar."  And it is.  Or, it is when it's filled with lemon drops.  This picture, of course, is in the sunshine but last week, the jar was on the kitchen counter, looking sunny, cheerful, & sweet.
When I was in elementary school and the weather was "inside recess weather", my teacher allowed me to go to the media center and help Mrs. Hewlitt, our school librarian, re shelf books and dust the surfaces.  I loved this job.  I sometimes convinced my teacher to let me go even when the weather was fair.  Mrs. Hewlitt and I talked about the books I was reading, the books I loved, and the books she thought I would love.  Many of her suggestions, I did love.  She always wanted me to read Harriet the Spy, though, and I never did.  I just did not think it was my cup of tea.  Having seen the movie as an adult (I know, not the same as the book but...), I realize that she was spot on - I would have loved that book.  Why did I resist?  Mrs. Hewlitt had a jar of lemon drops in her little coat locker behind her desk and, when I came to help, she allowed me one drop to suck on while I did my chores.

Many years later, when I worked in the children's literature department of a bookstore, I found this book, The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widman, and had to buy it.  The small girl visits her aunt who hands her a paper bag of lemon drops upon her arrival.  They fill a jar with the drops and set the jar on the window ledge where the sun twinkles off the cuts in the crystal.  After a walk in the fall leaves, they return home to make lemon tea, sweetened by a lemon drop. 

Happy Mother's Day