Nature Noticings

Lately, I've been looking everywhere for earth tongues. They are strange, black mushrooms that are indeed shaped like long, narrow tongues or perhaps spoons. They are out there; I've seen them reported once in a while on iNaturalist or the Pacific Northwest mushroom forum on Facebook. But I've had no luck so far. Believe me, when I find them, you will see them right here. In the meantime, every hike, every walk, feels a bit like a treasure hunt. In fact, all nature noticing for me is in the spirit of a treasure hunt. Sometimes, however, when you go looking for that one weird thing, you actually find it. Today, we were hoping to see hair ice on our Squak Mountain hike. Not only did we find it, we struck the mother lode! It was 28 degrees when we started out, and the fog had burned off to blue skies and sunshine. Apparently it was the perfect combination of temperature and humidity, because the hair ice was everywhere - it seemed like every few steps we spotted more. Hair ice...

Sadly, my sweet husband usually objects when I try to bring home the creepy bones I find while beachcombing. They tend to smell like fish. Very strongly of fish. Even the bones that aren't from fish, like seabird bones, smell like fish because seabirds eat fish. I have tried. I've brought some home, in spite of his objections, and cleaned them with soap and soaked them in hydrogen peroxide. This works to make most bones clean and tidy (and most importantly NOT smelly), but beach bones come out of the process still fishy. Ah well.  On a recent trip to Vancouver, B.C., we spent a lot of time walking the beaches, particular Jericho Beach and Wreck and Tower Beaches near the University of British Columbia. I found and photographed this object on Wreck Beach. I didn't even plead to take it home because of the fish smell AND international borders. (Border agent: "Anything to declare?"  Me: "Ummm. . ."). At home, I used Google Lens and a bit of internet search...