For most of this week, a good deal of my walking time was spent walking my neighbor's wonderful dog, which is one of my favorite neighborly things to do. Freida's an old buddy, and she's always a key to finding something interesting as we hike together through the back woods. While she's not a mushroomer, although there are pups trained to sniff out truffles, Freida often leads me past fungal curiosities... and this find was among the most curious. It's known as a Cauliflower Mushroom, for immediately obvious reasons, and though it would be striking under any circumstance, it's especially so now, since the deepening drought has so curtailed fungal enthusiasms. Sparassis spathulata likes to parasitize hardwoods, especially oaks, but it's not particularly virulent. It is, however, persistent, and it will often grow in the same place, year after year, as it converts wood, living and dead, into mushroom tissue. It's also, from what I learned when I was trying to unravel the current complications, engendered by DNA studies, about its identity, a rather choice edible. Alas, by the time I discovered this, the Cauliflower was past its prime. The patch bears watching. Maybe this is only the vanguard, or, at the very least, maybe this will require a field trip next year, same place, same date... probably with the same dog.