It's Mid January Already?

I mostly bailed on doing chores today and all sorts of other "shoulds" in favor of taking a long walk along the river.  Scared up the great blue heron a couple of times, heard a kingfisher and saw any number of juncos. 

The fungi are in a bit of a retreat just now, what with not much precipitation lately, not to mention the cold weather.  I took some photos of a mushroom with ice crystals on it just for the fun of it.  It's a wonder that this particular mushroom hadn't been obliterated though, by the phone company heavy equipment that is currently digging an underground phone line up to our neighbors.  (Note:  some great machinery shots on their way at some, couldn't resist.)  It was mere inches away from the path left behind by the Cats.

Meanwhile, Dino had called early in the a.m., determined that it was a burn day and headed for the slope below the house to do some cleanup.  This is the same area he'd worked on some years ago, and entropy being what it is, things had gotten untidy again.