Mushroom Mania

 The plan was to go for a hike.

And maybe spot some new rocks to climb.

And have a picnic on top of the hill, of course.

As it is the harvest time in forest

and berries and mushrooms are ready to pick,

I packed a fabric bag and my mushroom knife,

just in case we would find some.

Little did we know.

The warm rains had made it.

The forest was full of mushrooms.

And I'm not exaggerating.

Like really Full Of Them.

First we picked what we found,

but the amount of mushrooms was so overwhelming,

that in a while we grew more selective.

It was hard to decide which to pick

and to what direction to go for them.

Eventually,

the mushroom mania hit us.

We end up wondering around the hill sides for five hours.

This of course included long and nice picnic on the top,

including, among others, carrot cake muffins and home made pizza slices.

In that moment life felt just perfect.

We have saying in Finland

"tulee kuin sieniä sateella"

Meaning, that something will

"come as mushrooms in the rain"

And that means plenty.

Finally I needed to stop collecting the mushrooms,

as my bag started to be so heavy it was hard to carry it.

During our exploration,

we totally forgot the boulders.

But it didn't bother us too much.

Walking the hole day in forest,

with the autumn colors and smells,

really refilled our batteries.

Now sitting at home,

I feel extreme happiness.

I have boiled Rufous milkcap mushrooms (Lactarius rufus)

and sautéd in butter Gypsy Mushrooms (Cortinarius caperatus)

and stored them to our freezer.

I can already taste all the delicatessens

I will cook of them.