Sunday, September 23, 2012

Shrooming

The last two weeks have been a blur.

They started with the murder of friends and colleagues and ended with a big military conference which included a visit by Admiral Stavridis. Lots of stars on those shoulders!

And there is no end in sight...tomorrow I leave for a four days in Moscow (probably won't be able to blog there, so don't worry if I don't write that I have been eaten by Tigers), then I come back for a reception and a Public Affairs visitor to show around. Oh, and did I mention we have a new Ambassador?

At least this weekend, we were able to have a little fun.

A friend from Embassy Riga spent the night with us, and it was nice to get to hang out. And last night, I actually got to watch my alma mater play football on tv! And then today, there were the shrooms.

Estonians love their mushrooms. And our CLO arranged a trip for us out into a national forest for a day of mushrooming with a local expert.

She said there were some 10,000 different kinds of mushrooms in Estonia. She identified a few that we might find in the forest. Don't ask me what kind they were. I probably gathered about half edible and half not. I am still not sure how to tell them apart, and I don't see myself ever cooking anything I gathered.

I did learn how to identify some magic mushrooms though...because I found them.

They are really pretty.


I picked this one...that was before I knew what kind it was.

No, I didn't eat it or take it home. Or the other ones like it that I found.


The ones I found that were edible were not as pretty...and once she took out all the poisonous ones, were also not too abundant.




1 comment:

jdc said...

I love mushroom hunting! I've only ever done it back home in the Midwest, but there's something very fulfilling about imagining yourself as a hunter-gatherer (without having to kill bambi).