Hey everyone, I made it! It only took me 4 1/2 days and 4 motels to drive across the country to my new job as a ceramic studio technician. Things are already so different here. First off, they have fireflies at night. Secondly, there is wine and hard liquor in grocery stores. 3rdly, it’s green and it actually rains here. Oh, and Great Barrington really is a unique little town. The cost of living is a bit more here, but still nothing like Australia. I am in LOVE with the forest already. Tonight, dinner was whole wheat fettuccine with a creamy sauce with chicken and sauteed black trumpet chanterelle mushrooms that I found in the woods this afternoon. It was divine. Oh, and Peggy made a wonderful apricot tart for dessert. Here is a snapshot of my first walk in the woods here:

There are ferns EVERYWHERE. Oh, and mushrooms like you wouldn’t believe. The mosquitoes are really bad, though. Today I wore a jacket to walk in the woods even though it was 80 degrees out just to keep them off me, but they just attacked my face more and my hands. They really are aggressive here.

Here’s a photo of the delicious black trumpets that I found (above)

Mystery boletes (above)

Blue cortinarius? (above)

Clavaria? (above)