May 2, 2009 Later today I will be performing at the Geauga County Maple Festival. Geauga County makes a lot of maple syrup and this is a big tradition in this region. This festival used to be held shortly after the maple sap stopped being collected, which is generally around the end of March or early April. In years pasted it almost always snowed at the Maple Fest so the planning committee has moved it to the first weekend in May. Short of some sort of meteorological miracle it is not going to snow today. IT is turning into a spectacular May Day. I was up early this morning and out pursuing a tradition of my own. A buddy of mine has a lovely little morrel patch in his woods and for the past few weekends I have been poking around seeing what the good mushroom gods might reveal to me. Every spring since I was a little squirt with my pop I have been out at least a few hours looking around for morrels, which if you are in to mushrooms are very tasty, easy to identify and fairly difficult to find. Which leads to a certain mystique as most people hold the location of the their sacred mushroom patches secrete. (So don’t ask) Anyway I scored enough from Joey’s woods, which by the way is a factious name, to make an admirable side dish for a venison tenderloin steak and eggs breakfast for me and MJ. Now while I am taking the time to let my meal digest I thought I would post a journal entry. For the past several months my “day “ work has been basically non-stop, and I have been finding myself in bed sometimes as early as 9:30. This for me is nearly unheard of. But for those near and dear, don't worry I have been working on maintaining some sort of balance. Hence the value of the mushroom collecting stroll. There are true benefits derived from taking a walk in the woods. Being immersed in the local environment surrounded by other forms of life, seeing the beauty of a flower blossom or the chartreuse of a patch of moss. There is a lot out there to take in and taking it in seems to push other things out or at least get them in a different place in your head. At 6:30 when I got up, I had a gazillion things on my mind. Not really a gazillion, probably more like six in a gazillion incarnations. Anyway after taking my walk everything seem to be in the proper perspective. Amazing how that happens. And then I got the added pleasure of being able to come back home and do some thing for someone else, that is make breakfast for MJ. It’s turning out to be a beautiful day and I am going to have a great time playing some music here in a few hours.