A walk in the woods this summer rewards the hiker with the most amazing display of fungi and mushrooms. The wet summer that has embraced Ontario this year has provided perfect conditions for these beautiful and occasionally bizarre fungi. From the bright red caps to the gray and green oyster mushrooms and the ghoslty Indian pipes, the range is huge. These black devil's urns were found near the top of -- aptly enough -- Devil's Drop hill on one of the steepest hills anywhere on our ski trails. The yellow corals were pretty much everywhere along the North Ridge ski trail. And we found plenty of artist's fungus, a personal favourite. This shelf fungus is great fun, because when you draw on the creamy underside, the spores rub away, leaving a dark mark behind that is permanent. Clever artists -- like Ellie -- can create truly amazing artwork on these, which will dry into a petrified cork-like wood, and last essentially forever if you keep them dry. There are museums that have samples that were created by soldiers during the American Civil War.
Ours aren't quite that old, but up in the Recreation Barn, we have several on display that guests have made for us, celebrating their time here, and some of them go back 30 years or more.
Ellie, here from England, created this masterpiece to celebrate meeting the young buck hanging out at the resort -- whose antlers are still in velvet. On our nature hike, along with mushrooms, we found trees where the bucks had polished off their velvet last fall. And we all had a go at calling for the Barred Owl. In the woods, art comes in many forms!
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