As I pen this post I find it hard to believe that one week from now you will be reading this and it will be Christmas eve!  I also find it hard to believe that on this very wicked walk I got completely and totally lost.  Now I KNEW where I was in the sense that I was aware my house was less than a mile away and the property I was on belonged to one of two possible people.  However I was so distracted by mushrooms and bugs I somehow wandered off the trail I was following and ended up traipsing thru brush, around vines, up and down hills, over rocks and alongside a creek.  I kept going left thinking I’d end up back at the train tracks.  I didn’t.  It took me TWO hours to get home.  So if you see my mug shot on someones game camera…..well.  I’m sorry.  I really didn’t mean to tramp thru your food plot.  I was just trying to find my way home.  Addie told me next time I should leave a trail of rocks so I could find my way back.  She may be right.

And since I was gone for TWO hours there are a lot of pictures.  I’ve put most of them in a gallery so you can see them faster.  🙂

Here is what I saw.

Mushrooms growing in the train tracks.

Pine cones on train tracks.

More pinecones on the train tracks.

A squirrel recently attacked this pinecone.

Cross timber.

Nosey on the tracks.

The train trestle.

Lichen.

“I hear the train a’coming”. Not really.

Blackberry leaves.

Mushroom family.

Acorn

Mushrooms

Pretty berries.

See those 2 little mushrooms hiding under the leaf? Cute, eh?

FUZZY!

A bug resting on the mushroom cap.

These, I thought, were particularly great.

A mushroom a bit past its prime.

Butterfly. Or an orange hiney. I guess  it depends on how you look at life.

All of the sudden I spied a tiny, bright orange speck.  I thought it was yet another mushroom but then it produced legs and moved!

After doing a bit of research I BELIEVE this is a Giant Red Velvet Mite.  They are 100 times bigger than a normal mite!

When I first saw this bright spot I thought it was a mushroom.

It wasn’t a mushroom.

Creepy Crawly!

I think it is a tick of somekind.

But I’ve never seen a tick this color.

I have also decided to blame this tiny bug for my getting lost.  After I left him I wanted to go home.  I  headed promptly in the wrong direction.

Sweetgum trees still holding on.

skull in the woods.

A rotting tree limb I was under, probably not the safest place to be.

And now, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Wherever your travels lead you this holiday I pray you stay warm, don’t get lost and have lots of fun making good memories.

Merry Christmas y’all!