Dec
7
More Mushrooms
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Nature is constantly cleaning up. It’s just that when everything grows in summer or flowers in spring, we just don’t pay attention to it.
Oak tree: bark with mushroom
Take this mushroom: it’s been standing there for several years looking at the size of it, yet only now I take a picture of it. (And I should have removed the grass first I can see now…)
Now when you live in a 4 season climate: nature is kind of slow in cleaning up. A dead tree takes years here to be removed by insects and mushrooms, where in the rainforest of the tropics it only takes a few months!
Dec
6
Saint Nicholas brings presents for the kids today!
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Yesterday night Saint Nicholas and his helper "Black Piet" have been walking over the rooftops of our homes and houses.
Quietly Black Piet descends through the chimney, reads the letters of the children that asked Saint Nicholas for presents, and as by miracle, Black Piet will provide the kids with the gifts they are asking for…
Yes, this Saint Nicholas looks like the well known SantaClaus, yet he arrives the 6th of December. In Spanish speaking countries you have a similar looking saint doing similar things, yet he arrives at the beginning of January…
Now if you go to Germany, you will find people dressed in bizarre straw outfits with strapped-on cowbells and furs, their faces covered with devilish masks… These traditional "Buttnmandl" runners shout and make noise to frighten people in the village of Bischofswiesen, in southern Bavaria. This pre-Christmas custom aims to protect against evil spirits in the darkest time of the year.
So in the end this again must have been a pageant feast that has been christened and lots its original value. Especially the Black Piet reminds me on the Bavarian "Buttnmandl" runners to scare of evil spirits at the end of the year. Which explains why nowadays Black Piet carries a bag to put in the children and scare the hell out of them when they misbehaved during the previous year…
As such, this originally very human friendly pageant feast turned out in a very frightening children disaster, although softened by the gifts these kids get each year…
It’s strange when people start fondling around with tradition until they don’t know anymore what they are doing…
Nov
30
We found Belgian Truffles!
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Ok, to get the record straight: these are not Belgian truffles, but they are eatable mushrooms. I guess the real name is Motley Parasol but there I am not sure.
Now you will tell me: how can you be sure to eat this mushroom since you don’t even know the name of the mushroom?
That’s because I have been coming to this place already for years and have been eating them ever since 
Motley Parasol? No odor!
I have seen quite a few mushrooms similar to the ones in the above picture, but those mushrooms come with some pungent odor. The mushrooms in the above picture have no odor.
I love to simply fry them in a pan in some butter (oh, it’s almost winter, we can use the fat!) and they taste a bit like the meat of a calf.
