Monday of the first week of Lent

Sometimes these Lenten ideas seem great when you haven't started Lent yet. This one would be a lot more fun if it were actually SPRING instead of 24 degrees and breezy. But I still think it's something of a success when I walk around our yard and find something like this. The color and texture of shelf fungus comes in infinite varieties; I have probably walked by this many times without noticing the subtle varieties of color that you see when you get closer.

My husband has a degree in horticulture, along with computer science. He told me that you only see fungus like this on a tree if it's rotting inside. In this case, it was clear (this part of the tree is hollow!) but sometimes the fungus is the only easily visible sign that things are falling apart on the inside. What about us shows what's really going on inside?