Late Sunday afternoon I ran to the store to stock up on certain things. The local union is about to start a strike against a bunch of the stores (specifically several of the big chain stores) and I really don’t want to cross picket lines. The closest grocery store to us is a union store but it is not subject of the strike because it is part of a smaller, local chain that isn’t screwing over the workers in the way the big chains are. But said store, even though I like shopping there, has a smaller selection than the other stores.

When I got home, Michael came out to help me unload, and he pointed out something I had missed: a fairy ring! Toadstools coming up in a large ring on the lawn, right next to the car. So I had to take a picture…

I want to point out that the sun had already set. It wasn’t fully dark, yet, but the sky was more indigo than azure. So, I sort of expected the auto flash to activate, but it didn’t. That picture looks as if it were taken in daylight, but it wasn’t. So, if you have any doubts that the new camera in the iPhone 5s is as good in low light as they said it would be, set those doubts aside, now.

According to folklore, you’re not supposed to step into a fairy ring, but I had already crossed it a few times without even noticing it was there by the time Michael pointed it out. So I went ahead and stepped inside to take a closer picture of some of the toadstools that make up our fairy ring.

Mushrooms and toadstools have been popping up in lawns in our neighborhood for a couple weeks. Usually I don’t notice them until October, but our weather has been odd this year. And see as how we just had the wettest September ever recorded here, I suppose it should be no surprise that the fungus are popping up early.

Which isn’t doing my hay fever any good. But what else is new?

Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see the pixies dancing in the ring.