I've been out sick for a few days--hence the brief absence here--but this morning was up for a mushroom outing at Fernalds Neck Preserve in Lincolnville, led by the very entertaining and knowledgeable Kirk Gentalen of Maine Coast Heritage Trust. I learned a little about mushrooms and other fungi, but what I seem to have retained has more to do with poetry, I think, than biology. Like learning names that are stories in themselves... Witches' Butter, Bear's Bread, Crowded Parchment...

Learning mushrooms--
Velvet Earth Tongue speaks
from the forest floor.