Witch's butter, Henne

I filed the last of my magazine articles today and this, in theory, means that I'm free to walk, explore, and document the natural world. Right... Actually, the completion of income-producing endeavors only means that I'm now free to embark on a series of long-overdue projects that will help prevent a run on the bank. The first of these is to install three new door locks and deadbolts, and that's what I started this morning. It went well, and by mid-afternoon, I was pretty near done. My reward was a quick jaunt, and along the trail, I noticed a weird splotch of color growing out of a fallen tree limb. There are many different kinds of Jelly Fungi in our woods, but identifying them to the species level is tricky and requires a careful examination of the spores under a good microscope—something on the wish list but not, so far, on the buy-now list. So, whenever I spot an "irregularly lobed mass of golden jelly," to use the description in the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, I usually chalk it up to Witches' Butter, an especially common species in our woods. The witches do most of their churning in the colder, wetter weather. They've been quite busy these days.