Mushrooms and other visitors

After a few days of rain, today was beautifully sunny, so I opened the door to the deck to let some light and air in. Being outside prompted me to water the raspberry plant given to me by a colleague. I'm pretty bad at remembering to water the plant, but I'll pretend that the reason I haven't recently is because of the rain rather than neglect.

Happily, I noticed that the raspberry had some new growth amongst the dead leaves. I pulled out a few weeds that had shot up, but then noticed something strange.


Fungus-y visitor to the raspberry planter.



There were some weird mushroomy things around the plant.


Mushrooms! Wonder if they are edible...



Quite a few of them.


So many mushrooms...



Most of them were clustered near the base of the raspberry, so I suspect they came with the plants when I transplanted them. There's nothing in any of the other pot plants on the deck, so I don't think spores were just floating in the air... I asked my colleague about them, but she hadn't seen them before at her place (the source of the raspberry). She thought that perhaps they had laid dormant in Bulls where she lives, and only grew with all the rain we have in Wellington.

I have no idea what they are, if they are edible or not, or whether I should pull them out ASAP before they spread and poison any raspberries that try to grow despite my maltreatment. Happy to hear any ideas if there are any fungus experts reading my blog ;)

Speaking of unusual visitors to my deck (yes, the mushrooms are 'visiting'), we had another yesterday, napping for a couple of hours under our table. I would have gone out for a snuggle if I weren't allergic, and/or if I hadn't already tried to make friends but found him/her on the timid side...:


Furry visitor under our deck furniture.