Friday Fertilizer,

G'Day,
Friday is here so I am back to take part in the Friday fertilizer prompt which is run by Tootsie, you can find her link listed under "Tootsie Time" on my side bar in the my favourite reads section. Go see what everyone else is up to.
In my part of the world it is just coming into Autumn, which means Mushrooms and autumn harvests and golden leaves and big scary fat orb web spiders. I went for a walk this morning to find some mushrooms along the park that runs into Woden just two doors down from my house. Last time I posted about mushrooms I got comments saying that most people don't pick mushrooms because they don't know what they should or shouldn't pick. Rightly so, if you are not sure which mushrooms are poisonous it is safer not to eat any of them except the ones you can buy in the shops. I have gone mushrooming ever since I was a small child and have some idea which ones are o.k. and which ones you don't eat. But there are a lot of others that are edible that I wouldn't touch because I am not knowledgeable of them. So better safe than sorry.
The first picture above is of a little pufftaloon mushroom. I don't know if that is the proper name that is just what I have always called them. They grow without stems. Do not eat these little guys. They have a yucky green mustard coloured mess inside them, when they dry out it turns to a powder and I used to like popping them when I was a child.

Ah yes.....some flowers, Sweet alysum. Always a flower on these,,, but after the rain we have had they are doing very nicely.
The picture of the white stuff above is another type of mushroom related plant. Some sort of Fungi. I haven't seen this one before but it is growing in the shade of my caravan at the side of the house, strange isn't it?
Out the front of my house is a rock garden where this nice little azalea is living. Flowering out of season but welcome color just the same, the rain tricked it into flower again .
This was flowering in the park this morning....some sort of legume going by the leaves but I don't know what it is otherwise. Pretty though.
Little skinny grey mushroom. Don't eat it if you don't know what it is, I wouldn't try this one, pretty though, fine and delicate.
My haul. I don't know what these guys are called but they are one of the common ones I know you can eat that grow at this time of the year. They start out pink when they first open up and then change through the browns as they age , eventually turning black underneath. I don't pick the black ones as much, they have a strong almost muddy flavour as they age and too many tiny bugs in them. Ah well a few don't hurt...and add a bit of extra protein lol. Now I just have to clean them up. Peel them and wash them in salt water, drain well, cook in a blob of butter, a bit of salt and pepper, into a fry pan. A lot of water comes out of these and you need to thicken the gravy with some cornflour mixed with water, or milk, or cream. Onion and bacon go great with mushrooms too.

This is one of the mushies I picked, the edible ones. you can see around the edges it is starting to dry out and is getting a bit old, that means it will be hard to peel and black underneath.
Magic fairy circle in the park this morning. I remember when I was very little my Mum and Dad would take us mushrooming and we would always look for fairies underneath and try not to pick or step on any of them. Cute. These ones are not the edible kind though. If you turn them over you can see they are white underneath. They are also chunkier than the ones that grow at this time of year. Don't eat these. Close ups are in the next two pictures.Don't eat any that are yellow underneath either. I wonder if the fairies danced around them before dawn this morning?
Even the little bugs don't seem to want to eat these white Mushies.
White Mushie. Poisonous.
On the way back from our walk I was excited to find these Gang Gang cockatoos in the tree out the front of the next door neighbour's house. These are not as common as some of the other cockatoos, quite rare in most areas, and I was able to sneak right up to within a few feet of them and get some pictures. Love it. Gang Gangs have a harsh screechy cry , a bit different to the other cockies, and I have often heard them in the area but not been able to see them or get close before. The bird in the picture above is a male, happy eating the autumn harvest , probably why I could be so close without him flying away. Isn't he great. These birds are our state animal emblem. Um...I think they are anyway, nah, dunno, maybe those wonderful little fairy wrens are. I would love to be able to get a picture of a fairy wren they are absolutely delightful but they are so tiny and quick. I have no chance.
This is a female Gang Gang. She hasn't got the dark pink, almost red head like the male but her feathers are more striped and defined than his.
You can see her markings more clearly here. In size they are slightly smaller than a Galah or pink cockatoo and quite a bit smaller than a sulphur crested cockatoo.
Aw pretty boy. He has a very dirty beak I wonder what else he was up to this morning.
This is a sulphur crested cockatoo. What ya doin up there fella? Huh?
More sulphur crested cockies, same tree as the Gang Gangs. What is this tree, the birds love it?
A lot of the street trees around here have a carpet of seed and greenery underneath them at the moment because the cockies have been eating their seeds and pruning with their powerful beaks as they go along.
Kitchen in progress at my parents old house, last weekend.
My second son David, built this from scratch. Can't wait to see the final result. My Mum's house is about 2 years younger than me and the kitchen has never been changed before, except by painting. David and Peter laid the floor too, it is vinyl panels, looks like wood but you can't scratch or dent it.
That is my contribution for this week.
Bye Love Linda.
Got to go and get ready for work.