Some sort of mushroom, I think. We saw this baseball-sized fungus growing on the ridgetop at Fallen Timbers on our last visit. It bloomed from the recent rains, I suppose. On first glancing at it, I really thought it was a baseball that had found its way to the middle of the forest somehow. Deer hunting season began in Missouri yesterday and continues for ten days. Actually, it is high-powered firearm deer hunting season that began yesterday. There are all sorts of other hunting seasons through the fall and winter for taking deer: archery, muzzleloading, special local hunts, seasons for disabled hunters. The high-powered firearm season is the time when I stay out of the forest though. Sometimes I imagine that hunting season is merely a conspiracy by the deer to keep me out of the woods so I don't see them having parties and doing all sorts of anthropomorphic things like sitting in my comfy chair under the shady tarp overlooking the empty lake. I'm too afraid of going out to the woods to check on my suspicions, though. The next Festival of the Trees returns to Missouri when Larry Aryers of Hannibal's Riverside Reflections hosts. This is the second time around for Larry. Send your links to Larry at larry (dot) ayers (at) gmail (dot) com by November 29 with "Festival of the Trees" in the subject line. Or you can use the handy online submission form at Blog Carnival. Remember, your submission does not have to be a post you have made on your own blog. If you come across any kind of link that speaks of trees, you can submit it if you think it is worthy. The Festival has been growing for more than a year now, just as anything to do with trees should. Most of the credit goes to Dave of Via Negativa, who came up with the idea and hosted the very first edition of the festival, and to the many hosts who have offered their blogs for one day. You should consider being host. Just send me or Dave an email and we'll help you along. Occasionally, an older post starts to have a flurry of comments. The original Blue-tailed skink post gets a few now and then. The Ozark Howler posts draws some interest. Lately, it has been my post about coming across a scented candle in our woods that is getting some fresh comments. Of course, if you look at those comments you can see that they are being left by people who work for the companies that make these game-attracting scented candles, but the fact that it is deer hunting season around here -- when these candles might be employed -- probably has something to do with the increased interest. One year ago I was writing about the duckweed on the pond being in retreat. Two years ago I was musing about a perennial subject: interlopers. What's Pablo reading now? Well, I finished The Shadow-Line, but I'll have to do some cogitating and maybe a little research to match it up to the Roth novel where it was repeatedly referenced. Now I'm reading The Pesthouse by Jim Crace. It's set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland of North America, and I gave it to my daughter (who likes these kinds of stories) when she made her trip to Italy last summer. Now she's letting me read it. I'm about a third of the way through it and I really like it. The writing is excellent, and the story is realistic for a future devoid of technology or what we would call science. No zombies or space aliens (but there's more of the novel to read). I'd read another Crace novel years ago called Being Dead, and the two main characters in that one were, um, dead. Certainly not popular fiction. Missouri calendar:

• Veterans Day

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