Expedition Canada

Mushrooming with Shaggy Sat Oct 23rd All the Maple varieties are also becoming more colourful Heat Domes, Atmospheric Rivers and now Weather Bomb/Bomb Cyclone.  Descriptions of weather phenomena seem to be getting increasingly more colourful.  The latter is the latest due to arrive on these shores. Reports are suggesting there could be up to 2ft of rain and 8ft of rain in parts of the west coast North America.    It's being welcomed in parts of Northern California where some forest fires are still burning. In old speak, a 'low' would have developed mid-pacific followed by rapid drop in pressure of 24 millibars or more which is defined as a 'bomb cyclone'.   Bring back the stick on felt clouds to the weather forecast I say.  Saturday morning was just drizzle, the bomb had not yet detonated. We are in the black circle on the weather chart. We are in the circle The Quins V Bath rugby game was on as I started to write this.  Bath didn't win, but ...

Rain Sets In Sat Sep11 Sun Sep 12 It is around this time of year I would put my (unscented) dog poo bags to good use foraging for mushrooms on Salisbury Plain.  I had one spot where I was able to find a good number of a member of the Agaricus family.  I did get them checked by an expert to be sure I knew that what I was picking was safe to eat, but can't recall the name.  It was a type of field or horse mushroom.    Occasionally I'd find a puffball.  Even better! The mushroom season has started in BC and I've already spotted some Chanterelle and about a dozen other types which I don't recognize. We have a local chap in Gibsons who trades under the name of Shaggy Jack (aka Jody), who runs foraging courses, so I have booked onto an October course for a five-hour tutored forage. I've decided it's no longer safe to stick with the 'perpendicular test' when foraging for mushrooms.  The one where if I'm still vertical the next morning they must be ...