This is the grand finale in my series of milkweed pods. (If you open that link, please be sure to scroll down to see all three phases.) The dried, crackly pods have finally burst open, setting free thousands of fluffy down seed parachutes to insure that next year the cycle will begin again.
Or - I can't see the forest for the trees. This view shows the entrance to the woods at the Ryan Road horse farm. It's not really as dark as it appears in this photo once you are actually on the trails inside - although I wouldn't want to be lost in there on Halloween night...
We've had a lot of rain followed by hot, humid weather and so have been inundated with a variety of mushrooms in the area. But none so wonderful as the one in the photo I took a few years back of a giant puffball mushroom in the woods near Balmer Park. I couldn't resist giving him some shades. :-)
Another one was of this wonderfully twisted toadstool growing out of a dead branch in our tree line. Looks like something right out of Alice in Wonderland!
