Getting Outside Saturday: Birthday Edition

categories: Cocktail Hour / Getting Outside

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Ah, but the kids keep you young!

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They say it’s my birthday, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!  A year of no importance: 59.  Next year, major party (“A man of sixty has spent twenty years in bed and over three years in eating.” ~ Arnold Bennett ).  This year, meh.  I feel a lot like I’ve made it up the hill like the little train that could, crested the hill  proudly, lingered a moment at the top, and now find myself plummeting down the other side at speeds unheard of, and no brakes!  It’s all in the mind, my sister-in-law said this afternoon (she’s visiting with her lovely kids from Los Angeles).  No, I replied, It’s all in the body!  And I’ve got some new bumper stickers to counter all the pabulum about aging I’ve been hearing: FIFTY-NINE IS THE NEW FIFTY-NINE!  Or how about: YOU’RE ONLY AS OLD AS YOUR AGE!  Or this: YOU’RE NOT GETTING OLDER, YOU’RE GETTING FATTER!  Mick had it right: What a drag it is getting oh-0ld…  I took my birthday walk this morning through the forest and was rewarded with a huge King Bolete (Boletus edulis, or in Italy, porcini), dreams of a fine lunch, slices sauteed in butter.  But I took my safety nibble and found it bitter, bitter, ptooey!  I’d found not a King Bolete but an unusually pale Tylopilus felleus, or Bitter Bolete!  Perfect gift for the sorrowing birthday boy!  But never fear, a swim in the stream, a birthday party (cake made by daughter and her cousins), surprise guests (Wes and Diane, Elysia’s honorary grandparents), and, I mean, well, okay.  Wes’s jokes aside–“You think you’re taking a walk, but suddenly you realize you’re walking the plank!”  Salut!

Tylopilus felleus, or Bitter Bolete

Mmm.

I’ve heard that song before!

So that’s what they’ve been cooking up all day!

Concert!