Hello again, and welcome to another blog with the Findlaters in Canada!
This last few weeks have been eventful as we moved house from a small little studio into a two bedroom condo.
This activity in and of itself was time consuming as we had to search for furniture and order it in.
Some furniture arrived the day after we moved in (which is good) and the other will be arriving later this month.
Then there was the field component of the mushroom course that I mentioned in the last blog.
Kyran got up to some Airsoft tournament that he will tell you all about later.
Lastly we were invited to go along to an open night at the local seniors hall in this little retirement community we currently call home, in order to try "square dancing" and see if they could get some new younger blood in the group.
SQUARE DANCING
We arrived to the location that we had been given only to find that we were at a seniors hall, I personally felt a little out of place as a 25 year old walking into a senior hall. But nonetheless we ventured in to see exactly what we had signed ourselves up for.
There were a few people crowded around the door greeting the new comers and to my relief there were a few other new people and even a younger couple one of which was Australia.
The men were absolute gentlemen as they took lead and smiled as I stepped on their toes, and the women I could over hear gently teaching Kyran how to hold a ladies hand.
I felt the whole experience enriching as the elderly glided around the dance floor in their custom made dresses to ensure maximum skirt movement through out the dance.
I watch the couples with their matching costumes, and clearly the men had no say in the design, but still wore proudly with his partner.
More rewarding was watching the smiles on the faces of people enjoying every moment they have to dance, to walk, to hobble to a rhythm. Who know one day soon they will be unable to walk, dependent on others for everyday activities - but just now, just for the moment they were enjoying what movement they had left, the moments and the music.
Because it was such a pleasant experience, we are now learning to square dance and will be attending classes every Wednesday night!
MUSHROOM HUNTING
I guess I will just show a bunch of photos and explain them as we go!
This first one is a Lobster mushroom - It is edible!
The place that we went to search for mushrooms was in a forest that had branches covered in Mosses and lichens, something like this i had never seen before but it was everywhere!
Next up these mushrooms are a type of "coral" mushroom. Some species of these are edible and some not so much. From what I was told the worse side-effect you can have from eating these is a good case of the runs (laxative)!
I know that I have shown a similar growth to the one below in a previous Blog but it actually now just occurred to me what is going in this photo.
I believe but can not substantiate that the trumpet shape things are actually part of the moss life cycle. Please tell me if you know otherwise (a quick google didn't show what I was looking for).
Alrighty some more mushroom photos, I'm not sure what these are but they were nice to look at, and they are not edible.
This one above was purple! Amazing!! The one below is poisonous DO NOT EAT it but it was weird!
This one below is a false chanterelle fungus, not edible but similar to edible Chanterelle that is worth a bit of money if you can gather and sell enough!
Now for the good photos my handy dandy mushroom carrier Kyran!
The mushrooms above are edible ones called Honey Mushrooms, and we indeed did eat them in the end!!
We put the honey mushrooms and one or two other random edible ones into a stir fry!
We got a huge amount of Lobster mushrooms, but ended up not eating any as they were mostly old/rotten and stayed in the fridge a bit too long before we got around to doing anything with them. They literally smell like fish/lobster, and was kind of gross. Supposedly they make a good mushroom soup.
Kyran will take it from here:
The wild mushroom identification course that Mercedes did (and dragged me along to) seemed like a lot of fun, and we actually have one more field trip left to get another chance to gather and identify (and eat!!!!!!!!!) some more mushrooms. I think these sorts of small courses held by the local community college (TAFE equivalent) is awesome, and I reckon more people back home in AUS should see if there are any short courses they find interesting.
New Apartment
The new apartment is coming along nicely, we have furniture and still more to come! The place seems nice so far, no trouble with the neighbours and the internet is nice and fast (which is of course the most important thing next to running water and electricity).Kyran Airsoft stuff
For those who are vaguely interested, I'll show some pictures of my recent Airsoft adventures.
Here is a picture of my friend Clay and I. We both enjoy shooting little white plastic balls at eachother while keeping fit and running around.
Operation Urban Uprising
On October 3, I went to a big event in the local area held by one of the airsoft supply shops, to support the community and bring the local groups together into one large event. One of the local car wrecker yards was converted into a battlefield, and 56+ local airsoft players (within 2 hours drive in all directions) converged for a big day of games.
Ken (my former colleague, an intern who has returned to finish university now) and I standing around after a battle, waiting to see what happens next.
Mercedes doesn't want to get involved (yet..) because she abhors guns and anything related to them (despite having played paintball at least twice before) and has not given into my requests to join me for a day of fun in the sun.
Maybe one day!
That's it for us this time, we hope you enjoyed reading our blog and we hope you are all having a good time and being safe, healthy, and growing economically.
