A mushroom walk in the woods

I recently got into mushrooms, primarily for eating, but I've been having just so much fun learning about all the different species and finding the shocking amount of mushroom diversity in my local woods. A am flabbergasted by how many mushrooms I've seen over the past few months, and equally flabbergasted by how many incredible, weird, and awesome mushrooms I mush have been walking by my entire life with out noticing a one of them.

Here are just some of the mushrooms I saw on my most recent woods walk:

Going on mushroom walks has become one of my favorite activities lately. If you're looking for mushrooms, you really have to slow down, and focus your mind. In a way, the slow walking and focused looking seems meditative for me. When you add in my love of all biology and the excitement of a new group of organisms to explore, mushroom walks are fantastic- even when I don't find anything to bring home and eat!