Taking the lama out for a walk

I love to take my dog Max out for a walk. Some days ago during a walk in the area I stumbled across a weird sign. You should know that Dutch communities really take the pet's interest at heart and that all residential areas have dog walking zones and assigned dog playing fields.

These zones are clearly indicated by signposts but for some reason I didn't link the image to the dog ... is it me or would this be the assigned lama-zone?

Mushrooms, our new enemy?

Some of you may know that I am an avid cook and mushrooms have been one of my favorite ingredients over the last two decades - not sure what started it - for their flavor and for their ability to 'meat-up' a dish.

I am aware that they are essentially fungi but their appearance is less icky than their cousins' which sneak into your sealed tupperware to camp for weeks just to surprise you with their colors, patterns and odor whenever you open the box later on.

Today I believe I detected the first signs of hostility from the mushrooms I cooked. Sure, most of the time I use the fresh product and they seem (still) to be pretty harmless, but the dried variety is of a much darker breed.
Maybe they detest the way they are treated which I can relate to as having the water evaporated from my body would not make me the most happy person alive either.
Maybe it is the small packs they are sold in, avoiding them to make much new friends. They are after all a very social fungus, I never saw a mushroom all by itself in a forest ... unless it is a trick to attract innocent animals. Mushrooms hunt in packs you know.

Obviously the above treatment would annoy any mushroom but for preparation I put them into a small bowl and poured boiling water over them. Now THAT would piss me off too.

I believe they waited patiently for their revenge as later on, they ever so slightly nudged my left ring finger under the blade of my knife when I was chopping them. I got away with only minor injury but the next batches of mushrooms I will prepare will be subject to my anger and vengeance.

I will not tolerate any mutiny in my kitchen!

Cat and frog games

For the last couple of weeks the temperature has gone up summer-style and the beasties are aware of it.  Our pond has its annual tenant ... Mr Frog, and our cat is sincerely interested in him.  Maybe they have some kind of chemistry going on as both creatures keep each other on edge.
Whenever the frog starts calling, the cat comes over.  Whenever the cat is sitting at the pond, the frog stops calling.  One way of interpretation is that the frog calls the cat which in turn shows up very confused as the frog is neatly tucked away in the plants ...

However I believe this is not the true dynamic of the relationship.  So now and again, we see the cat running with the frog in his mouth ... cat brings frog to us as if to show off his predator skills.
The frog's role in this is to keep stunningly still and cold.  The latter is not much of a problem anyhow.

So we chase away the cat, carefully pick up the frog and put him on the waterplants after which he quickly paddles away to recover.

Can't help but feel as if they're playing us ... today I had the impression the frog was chuckling.