Well, another hurricane has come and gone through central Florida. Fortunately, for most of us, this was a pretty mild storm. There were some very unfortunate folks who had lost or damaged homes secondary to beach erosion on the east coast, but most of us came through it unscathed. I spent most of the day on Thursday without power (one of the disadvantages of living in the woods is that trees fall on power lines all the time), but I’ve lived here long enough to be well prepared for this. It rained and was windy pretty much all day on Thursday, but as soon as the rain let up I went outside to check my fences. Although at their worst, these storms can cause tremendous amounts of damage to both man and nature, they can also can bring the elements that stimulate some parts of nature, too. The day after all the rain I found these ringless honey mushrooms (Desrmillaria tabescens) growing in the woods on top of the roots of a dead oak tree. Of course, the spores were present long before the rains and it was already warm, but that rain was the missing ingredient that allowed these beautiful fruiting bodies to develop. Other plants and flowers that had been looking a little rough also perked up with the rain, but they don’t sprout and grow as quickly as the mushrooms. Just another example of how what’s bad for some things in nature, may be just the thing that’s needed for something else. Nature just continues to amaze me.