Blogging

Shortly after I came out to British Columbia in early 2006 I had a case of severely high blood pressure. It wouldn't have been fair to an employer for me to work for them until I got my health situation sorted out. I was on medications to lower the blood pressure and it took until early 2007 to find the cause. I finally went to a naturopath who found that a microscopic parasite was the cause for all this.

While getting my health in order, I took up blogging to share my photography. This way I wasn't wasting time and others got to enjoy the photos, not just me and those close to me.

In May of this year I had a mini-stroke cause again by severely high blood pressure. I may end up gong to the naturopath again since the specialist and other MDs can't seem to find the cause. This has only been a problem out here. Before that in Ontario, the blood pressure was only marginally high, not severely high like in BC.

Knowledge is good because being forewarned is forearmed!

All that said, enjoy this blog and all the photos I share with you.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Shoo Fly! Shoo! Those are my Amanitas!

For years I've only seen the Fly Agaric [Latin: Amanita muscaria] in photos or illustrations. The earliest illustration was in a German language edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales (Grimms Maerchen) that my mother brought back from Germany as a gift in the early 1960s. Then after a week of rain in October I spotted a number of these Amanita fungi. This mushroom is very beautiful to look at but also very poisonous. It's early button stage can be confused with other edible varieties which would be why this mushroom has ended up in the odd culinary dish with unwelcomed results.

Here is a series of photos taken Hastings Park on Renfrew south of East Hastings Street in Vancouver. There was a break in the rain which provided ideal conditions for the growth of fungi, mosses and other organisms.


The two varities of fungi below were also seen but I have not been able to identify them as yet. I am including them just the same. Feel free to comment if you can identify these last two. Meantime, please enjoy the images!

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