traipsing in the woods amongst the fungi

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

Traipse:
intransitive verb
transitive verb
traipsed, traips′ing
to walk, wander, tramp, or gad

When out in the woods my husband, more often then not, walks with a sense
of focused purpose and direction..

Me on the other hand, well I tend to lag behind…
traipsing about, camera in tow….

(all pics taken in the mid west Georgia woods last Sunday–Julie Cook / 2017)

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens,
and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:7-10

Beauty in decay

Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.
Robert Browning

A long day spent delving deep into the woods leads one to the discovery of the otherworldly and alienesque.
Flora, fauna, fungi. . .
There is both life and death . . .
And there is beauty, even in decay. . .

These images are of the myriad species of shelf or bracket fungi (polypores).
These woody growths are telltale signs of the decline and eventual death of a hardwood tree.
They have been used throughout the centuries for both the making of jewelry, medicines as well as sustenance—

(all images are shelf fungi (polypores) / Troup Co, Georgia / Julie Cook / 2014)