Collection of Nativity Scenes from Around the World at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Brevard, North Carolina - 2024

St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Brevard, North Carolina, again hosted its Nativity scene display in early December.

The exhibition entitled "No Room at the Inn" presented nativity scenes from the church collections as well as from the the people belonging to this church.

Only a small part of last year's collection of nativity scenes was presented. This year, most of the nativity scenes were different.

 

Nativity scenes are made of various materials, wood predominates, but there are also nativity scenes made of ceramics, glass, and even metal...

Just Owls - North Carolina Arboretum Exhibit

Only Owls is a current exhibit at the Arboretum featuring a variety of artistic representations of owls. All of the paintings are from the collection of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum of Art in Wausau, Wisconsin. The museum is best known for its annual exhibit, Birds in Art, which features contemporary artistic representations of birds. The annual exhibit has been held the week after Labor Day since the museum was founded in 1976.

A walk among the beautiful colors of autumn...

 

I often go for walks along the local Davidson River – it is a beautiful place at any time of year. It is especially impressive in autumn – full of colorful leaves: yellow and gold, orange and red, and also different shades of brown… There are so many of them, on the trees, underfoot… This time of golden leaves reminds me of the beautiful Polish autumn.

Mushrooms in Davidson River - the last days of summer and the beginning of autumn

On my next walk along the Davidson River I found mushrooms again. This was a few days before the hurricane hit our area.

Mushrooms on the trail along the Davidson River...

After days of rain, walking along the Davidson River was a surprise. I usually find mushrooms here in season, but not as many as I have seen in the last couple days. I saw an unusual amount of mushrooms. They were everywhere you looked - all so different and equally amazing! One hiker told me that in 15 years of hiking here he had never seen so many mushrooms.

 

The mushrooms were different, diverse and among them there were a lot of mushrooms from the Amanitas group. These mushrooms are easy to spot and often colorful but many are dangerous, they are toxic.
Some Amanitas are considered edible but as I noticed none of Amanitas from my mushroom book is recommended to eat it.

Some mushrooms looked very artistic...

 

Some were nicely attached to the trees...

Bolete is a type of mushroom that can be recognized by its unique cap. The underside of the cap usually has a spongy surface with pores, rather than the gills typical of other mushrooms. Bolete is the English common name for a species of mushrooms that has such a cap.

 

 

 

 

Coral fungi

Hydnellum scrobiculatum, commonly known as the Ridged tooth or Rough hydnellum

Turkey tail

 

 

 

 

 

A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolina - Alan E.Bessette, Arleen R.Bessette, & Michael W.Hopping, The University of North Carolina Pres, Chapel Hill

Turk's Cap Lilies (and other flowers) on Blue Ridge Parkway - summer 2024

 

 

 

Turk's Cap Lilies

Black Cohash                                              

 

Common Mullein

 

Yellow Jewelweeds

                                                   

 Common agrimony

 

Clematis flower after bloom

                                      Leather flower

 Fire pink

New mushrooms of the species Chicken of the Woods appear on the trees