Corn Cobs

The tailless squirrel returned this weekend. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks and wondered what had become of him. He wandered into the yard hopping like a rabbit and headed for my wildlife feeding area. I keep a couple of bird feeders there and pour some seed on the ground for the doves as well as some fruit for the mockingbirds. I also drop a few ears of hard corn, the kind grown as silage and made for squirrels.

The tailless one headed straight for one of those ears, picked it up in his front paws and began munching on it the same as a human would, grasping it firmly and working his way from one end of the ear to the other. All he lacked was butter and salt. After a while, he decided it would taste better if eaten closer to his own home, so he picked up the ear and headed across the street with it, although with a bit of difficulty as he had not calculated the full weight of his quarry.

But he finally did manage to make it to the neighbor's yard and I lost sight of him. Now I wonder what my neighbors will think when they find an empty corn cob tossed carelessly in the yard, and which one will get the blame for leaving it there.

Morels

I had my first encounter with a morel mushroom last weekend. I had never seen one before except in pictures so I was excited, especially since the finds are rare. I wrote about the experience on freshare.net and you can read that article here: The Morel of the Story.

What was surprising to me was that morels didn't taste as exotic as I expected. I thought I would discover a musky, woodsy kind of flavor but what I got was a mushroom so mild it barely tasted like a mushroom at all. I mean, it was good and I ate my share but I expected something, I don't know, maybe stronger in flavor? Something that would linger on my taste buds.

But don't read this as total disappointment. I'll be back after the oddly interesting little fungi same time next year.