Taken with an iPhone

Taken with an iPhone. We have quite a few of these near the pool. I have no idea what the name of this flower is but I love the color.

I have been tracking since Nov 2014 the countries that my blog readers come from. Hit the 144 number yesterday after a long wait (with about 65 thousand readers). (Was 143 for about six months). The top two countries (by reader count) is of course USA and India. China is third. Interestingly, a large number of hits from China are on to my Puzzle pages!!

… fighting for supremacy…

… are actually after the sunset as the sky darkens, the dim lights start coming on and you can see the mystical silhouettes of the objects…

This one propped up right next to our road in the property on a steep climb. I saw it while driving down yesterday. After parking the car, went back uphill to check it out.

Apparently, (learnt from Sharmila who saw it is some discussion posts in our local forum) these are poisonous and pets should not be allowed to ingest them. That got me doing some reading up on how to visibly diagnose which mushroom is poisonous and which one is not.

Turns out there is no way of doing it. You have to know your mushrooms. However, I did learn a few things about mushrooms on the way.

Do you know what you call a person who actually knows their mushrooms? A mycologist! Turns out, that has Greek origins meaning “study of fungus”.

A mushroom is actually the reproductive organ of a fungus.

Also, being a fungus, evolution wise, a mushroom is closer to animals than plants!