Mushrooms and another hike

Well yesterday I was back off to my Dad's place.  Kevin dropped me off in Perth where my Dad met me and then we headed off to his place stopping along the way at one of our usual hiking spots, the Baird Trail just outside of Middleville.

 It's a nice little trail through a variety of different trees and some swampland.  Didn't see any wildlife but saw a large number of really pretty mushrooms, so I thought I would take a few pictures to show you.

A nice glazed yellow one

Little red ones

This one had the nice gills from underneath curling up on the sides which made it different looking

I have no idea what kind they are, just that they caught my eye.

This morning my Dad and I took the dogs to Morris Island Conservation Area and took a different hike from the one a a month or two back.  This one was called the Chats Falls Trail and it was a bit longer than the last one, but really pretty and you get a really good view of the big dam just down river.  Of course on the way there I mentioned that I forgot the camera and we all know Murphy's Law!  Well sure enough I saw many things that I wished I could have had a picture of.  The dogs were ahead of us when I caught something out of the corner of my eye and it was dark so I thought it was Whiskey, but I was sure she was ahead of us.  I was a huge porcupine, quickly got the dogs on their leashes, don't need them chasing one of those!  The porcupine just slowly plodded on and climbed a tree to safety.  Again saw lots of interesting mushrooms, some similiar to yesterday and others  that were just as neat.  Saw a grass snake, then quickly saw two more in the same little area, must be a nest of them.  Later saw a turtle sunning itself and then saw a rather large water snake curled up on a rock sunning himself, while we were watching it we made a bit of noise and it was off quickly into the water.  Boy was it fast!  Guess that will teach me in the future to remember the camera.

Trail map at Morris Island Conservation Area

This afternoon I am off to take Whiskey to the dreaded vet's.  Whiskey has been showing a few signs of a possible bladder infection in the last week or so and we want to have it checked out to be certain.  I'll give an update on that later.

Update on Whiskey 10:15pm

Well Whiskey does have a urinary track infection as well as bladder stones, which we had suspected that she might, as she was displaying symptoms similiar to what she had had once before years ago.  Back then they did surgery on Whiskey, but the vet now says that we can do that again or try a special diet of food that we have to buy from them that is suppose to dissolve the stones.  This depends on the type of bladder stones she has.  So I think we will probably try this method first and see how it goes, before making the decision to do surgery, which bothers both Kevin and I because of her age and possible complications that can arise in a dog her age from the anesthesia.  In the mean time I have been given an antibiotic to clear up the urinary track infection.  We'll keep you updated on her as time goes on.