Fungi 2015 season beginning

I have long given up making new year's resolutions, for, like all too many people with good intentions, I don't manage to keep the promises I make. Well, at least in the resolution department. In the "for real" department, I'm definitely a better citizen. For example, a neighbor recently asked me to take care of her place while she was on vacation, and, as was true in the past when I'd taken on the same task, I was, and am, as good as my word. And as was also true, I managed to find all sorts of intriguing things to observe and document while I served as Good Samaritan. Late last month, with the weather warm for this time of year, I spotted an unexpected flush of mushrooms in my neighbor's garden mulch. A sudden cold snap shriveled the fungi before I'd had a chance to photograph them, but the recent spell of rain and warmth—the temperature was well into the 50s in the afternoon—brought another mushroom crop out of the ground. These I managed to document, and as to their species, well, this year I resolve to make an effort to master mushroom identification. And I'm going to keep that promise. Honest, I am. OK, I resolve to try.