Rice Lake and Magical Mushrooms

We took the kids to Rice Lake last weekend, to enjoy the beautiful sunshine which we may not see too much more of, as we head into the rainy fall season. Rice Lake is on the North Shore of Vancouver, and although a small lake, is stocked with rainbow trout, so is a fairly popular fishing spot for young families.

The two "boys" tried their hand at fishing. The two of us "girls" just talked, and my daughter read a book for a while. We were torn between hoping they'd catch a trout, and hoping they wouldn't, so we could just go out for dinner on the way home, rather than go home to prepare the trout. As our luck would have it, we stopped for pizza at Fresh Slice on the way home. Fresh Slice is of my favourites, and their 8 slices for $9.99 picked from the counter (so each person can pick what they like) is so fast and convenient. But I digress.

Here are a few photos of Rice Lake to enjoy.




It is that magical time of year that the Amanita muscaria mushroom is appearing in various places, including along the paths at Rice Lake. It is the classical fairy tale mushroom - red with white spots:

I have never before seen the yellow version, the Amanita muscaria var. guessowii:

One of the moms was collecting an attractive mushroom which was dark brown on top, somewhat soft/velvety, and bright yellow underneath (in the gills). Apparently it was edible. Anyone know what this might be? My brief attempts to identify it have not been successful. I wish I had taken a photo of it at the time.

There were other mushrooms also, which I did get a photo of:




On the way home, I amused myself with the "fireworks" setting of my daughter's Kodak Easyshare camera, by jiggling the camera around, and catching some abstract traffic images: