Autumn Greetings from the Depths of the Earth

It's rained a few times here in Eugene. That means there's mushrooms to be found in the yard. Here's a few. And yes they really do grow in large circles sometimes referred to as fairy rings.

And mushrooms mean I get to make spore prints. Here's what I do: (the basics are very, very easy)

Bring the mushroom into the house, gently remove the stalk and place the mushroom face down on a piece of paper. Wait anywhere from 6 to 12 hours and watch what happens. Note- I've never tried this with store bought ones but I have noticed, the younger the mushroom, the more spores you'll get.

Here's two different mushrooms that were loaded with spores and I got a couple of prints from each one.

Sometimes you get lucky. Here's a pretty good print.

But pressing the zoom button is what fascinates me the most.

Like fingerprints and snowflakes, no two spore prints are the same.

The spores are fragile and ephemeral. You could blow them away.

How mysterious and strange and beautiful is the world we live in?