Heads or tails and fairytales in my mind

This photo was in a bundle my dad sent a few weeks ago. My grandmother took it - this is me and two of my brothers, about twenty years ago. We used to go for walks in the woods with her, usually looking for ladyslippers and other unusual plants. My grandmother knew all about flowers and birds.

When we found this mushroom, I'm sure there was some discussion about whether or not we should pick it. Grammy would have known it wasn't poisonous, but she never liked to dig up plants unless they were fiddleheads - in that case, all bets were off. She would greet us with the exciting news that she'd found a new ladyslipper and that we should come with her to look for it again - she just wasn't sure where it was or how long it would take us to find it.

So bringing back this mushroom was unusual. The slices filled the frying pan, as I recall. I hadn't seen this photo in about fifteen years until my dad sent it to me.