Yoga Workshop

Friday evening through Sunday lunch took a 3 day yoga intensive from Julie Lawrence from Portland, Oregon.

It is rather difficult to sum up three days of intensive practice, so maybe I won't try. The most enjoyable aspect of almost any workshop is being able to focus on one thing I enjoy for a number of hours. She has emphasized the need for practice, non-attachment to any given outcome of the practice and honesty. Oh, then there is abdominal enlightenment. Daily abdominal enlightment is encouraged.

What I've really enjoyed are the poems or readings with which she starts class. Three out of four of the readings made it into this post. The fourth didn't stick with me.

Our True Home

Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle
The miracle is not to walk on water
The micracle is to walk the green Earth in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Peace is all around us
in the world and in nature
and within us
in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace,
we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith;
it is a matter of practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The second morning Julie shared this poem by the late poet laureate of Oregon, William Stafford

The Way It Is

There's a thread you follow.
It goes among things that change.
But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of that thread.

William Stafford


The last morning, Julie started with a small piece of a T.S. Eliot poem (The Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding). I found the complete version at http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/gidding.html


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.


The first of the Nootka lupines and Northern Geraniums are blooming in the garden

Some Spring Fungi

I've encountered a few new to me fungi this last week, one Polyporus and two Ascomycetes.

Polyporus sp. is a fungus I found on a red alder log and later on an Elderberry near the first bridge on the Indian River trail. It is a stipitate Polypore with a darker stem base, at least on older individuals. Some of the population have distinct stipes and caps others in the same population are more funnel or vase-shaped. In either case the pore layer is white. The cap looks like it has soft or fine tomentum, but none is apparent by touch. The upper surface has concentric bands of color (browns, tans) in some individuals, others are fairly uniform. The margins are wavy in older individuals. The odor is pleasantly mushroomy.

The only name I can find that vaguely fits is P. badius (P. picipes), but I'm not sure what all of the options could be. P. badius is a white rot fungus.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/polyporus_badius.html has a useful description and a useful key http://www.mushroomexpert.com/polypores_stemmed_pale.html

I've edited the following description extracted from mycobank http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Link=T&Rec=456026

Basidiocarps annual, laterally to centrally stipitate, solitary or clustered; pileus circular or flabelliform, up to 15 cm wide; upper surface light chestnut brown to dark blackish brown, often darker in the center, azonate to radially striate, glabrous, smooth or rugose on drying; pore surface white to pale buff, pores circular to angular, 5-8 per mm, tube layer white when young, becoming slightly darker than the context, up to 1 mm thick, decurrent on the stipe; context pale buff, azonate, corky, up to 1.5 cm thick; stipe black and minutely tomentose at the base, chestnut brown and glabrous at the apex, up to 5 cm thick.Hyphal system dimitic; contextual generative hyphae thin-walled, simple-septate, 3-5 µm in diam, inconspicuous in mature specimens, forming a cutis on the pilear surface and a palisade on the stipe surface; contextual skeleto-binding hyphae thick-walled, aseptate, with dendroid branching to narrow tapered tips, 3-5 µm in diam; tramal hyphae similar; gloeoplerous hyphae also present.Basidia clavate with a narrow base, 1-4-sterigmate, 20-30 x 7-9 µm, simple-septate at the base. Basidiospores cylindric, 7.5-9 x 3-3.5 µm. Substrata. Dead wood of numerous hardwood genera such as Acer, Aesculus, Alnus, Betula, Castanea, Fagus, Fraxinus, Populus, Prunus, Robinia, Quercus, Salix, rilia, and Ulmus, also found on Pinus and Picea.Distribution. Temperate species found in Europe, North America and Asia.

Mitrula is a small ascomycete in the Helotiales, Geoglossaceae. Mitrula are also called Bog or Swamp Beacons. It was growing on or around the old leaf bases of Skunk Cabbage in the meadow/muskeg near the Indian River trail. It was found in similar habitat in another muskeg. The genus is found on submerged decaying vegetation in stagnant or slow moving water. Mitrula is considered aero-aquatic, that is the apothecia are above the water. They were solitary or in groups. Inidividuals were up to an inch, maybe 1.5 inches tall.

The fruiting body consists of a clear stem and a cylindrical orange to yellowish orange head. Under the scope they have been less than cooperative in yielding their ascospores. Ascospores are the definitive characteristic needed to distinguish M. elegans from M. borealis. M. elegans has cylindrical spores that lack a gelatinous sheath and M. borealis has elliptical spores. M. borealis is smaller than elegans and has a hyaline stipe as opposed to a white or faintly pinkish stipe in M. elegans.
The spores in the collected fungus seem to be rather narrow, so for now I'm calling this fungus M. elegans.
The photo at the following link shows a more irregular head than those I found, but it is at least a start. http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Mitrula_elegans.html

An interesting article on the life history and relationships of the species of Mitrula can be found at the following link http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/92/9/1565
The importance of ascomycetes in decompostion in fresh water was noted in the article, in fact they cited a source reporting 75% of the fungal biomass in underwater systems are Ascomycetes. This fits with the prevalence of the dark septate fungi in the root systems of the muskeg plants. Wonder if we should shift to Ascomycete primers for laccase enzymes?

Vibrissea truncorum or Water Club is a relative of the Bog Beacon. It was growing on submerged or emergent sticks in a small creek. They looked like small orange cups from a distance, but up close had short stalks (less than an inch) and orange cap-like heads. The stalks were light colored with dark hairs. The caps were kind of gelatinous or fleshy looking, but didn't seem particularly sticky.
The spores were very odd, in fact it took a bit of convincing that I was looking at spores at all. Instead of the round or oval spores, these were quite thin and kind of thread-like. Apparently when mature, the spores project out of the ascus and vibrate in te running water. This gives the apothecia a white silky appearance (Mushroooms of Idaho and the PNW, Vol. 1 Discomycetes, by E. Tylutki).
I found a reasonable photo at http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Europe/Czech_Republic/photo107644.htm

Found this piece of shell late last week on a short walk up Indian River trail. I had about a half an hour, so thought to look at the mosses in a small creek that crosses the trail. Didn't find any new and different mosses, but did find this egg shell. It is a bit greener than shows in the photo. Lacking a book with photos of eggs, I've been scavenging around on the internet for something similar. So far the closest match is a crow, but I'm not certain.

In other bird news; found a nest in the young trees beside the path to the burn pile. Jeff was clearing trees and fortunately noticed one of the parents trying to lure him away and saw the nest. He wasn't sure what sort of bird it was, but thought it might have been a hermit thrush.
There is another young tree next to the nest tree with a convenient branch that affords a view into the nest. I climbed up the next morning to see what was in the nest and found 2 or 3 feathered young. Was thinking that the Hermit thrushes hadn't been around long enough to produce feathered young, but wasn't sure. The light was poor enough that I couldn't tell if the birds were moving, but assumed that all was well. Peeked again the next day and could see the birds chests moving rather rapidly. Too curious to wait any longer, so on June 5th decided to sit out by the nest until I saw the parents. I sat about 10ft away and it didn't take long for the parents to appear. They were song sparrows. I was sitting quietly for about 3 minutes when one parent landed in the blueberry next to me. He/She had a worm or larva in its bill when it landed. She/he started scolding me in a low key fashion, then the other parent landed on the other side of me. The two scolded back and forth and I held very still and tried to relax and keep my breathing even to see if they would decide I wasn't much of a threat. I probably should have given it a bit longer, but was concerned I was bothering them too much, so quietly got up and left.

The hummingbirds have finally decided that the window feeder is a good source of nectar. Have been treated to Rufous hummers feeding this morning (Friday). Not sure yet if it is one bird or a few. Kind of nice having the birds about 2ft away even if it is through a window.