Along the shoreline of North Lake are places where there are concrete steps down
to the water level. As we walked along the waterfront of North Lake I thought
I saw something on the second step up from the water which caused me to pause and look more closely. Upon a closer view, I saw it was a small turtle lying on its back. One of its legs was in a position to try to turn itself over onto its
front side but obviously it was unable to do this and aparently had died from lack of water and the hot sunshine.
I felt sorry for the little guy and was wondering how it could have reached the
second step above the water. I decided it must have fallen from the top step when suddenly its rear leg moved, albeit weakly. It was still alive!
I immediately turned it over and another leg moved slowly. The hot sun had dried the moisture from both its eyes and they were stuck shut. Strangely, on its back was a short strip of white tape and on the tape was written, faintly, 3 Chinese characters. I picked it up and placed it into the water knowing that the hot sun would have driven off most of the moisture it needed for life and it was probably too dry to sink under the water. Yes, the little turtle was floating like a dry leaf upon the surface. S/he began reviving and even tried several times to paddle with her legs and submerge beneath the surface but to no avail. S/he then used her front legs to wipe her eyes, first the left eye with no success
and then the right eye. Her eyes were firmly stuck closed but after a few moments s/he was successful and both eyes opened. Now s/he was recovering quickly!
We found a plastic bag at the bottom of my backpack which had been used to carry
some fruit for our lunch, poured a little lake-water into it and dropped our now active turtle into it.
S/he is now residing comfortably in a pan of water, a new pet for my friend's son.
Clover has been planted along the waterfront beneath the shade trees. Amongst the thick clover I saw the white head of a freshly sprouted mushroom. Upon further exploration we found many more, all fresh and clean and white. They had a fresh mushroom flavour and my friend decided to gather them up and bring them back
to her home. I have always feared the poisonous mushrooms that look similar to
the ones that are safe to eat and cautioned her about eating them.
When we arrived back at the bus-stop where we would catch a bus for Shihezi, we
met several older ladies who were also waiting for the bus. They were curious to know what was in our two plastic bags and laughed to see the, by now, very active turtle. One woman pronounced that the small turtles you can buy as pets on
the street cost 5RMB and our turtle, being bigger, was certainly a 10 RMB turtle
!
Then she saw the mushrooms. Oh! What fine mushrooms! They will be delicious to eat!
My friend felt relieved and happy to learn that an older and hopefully wiser woman agreed that they were edible. Then the smiling woman added, " Be sure to eat
some garlic with your mushrooms; just in case they are poisonous, the garlic will protect you!"
Suddenly all my friend's confidence evaporated.
The last I heard about these mushrooms was her husband saying, "I will eat them
first and see if I feel ok afterwards."
I left that evening for Shihezi. I have not heard any news of their mushroom dinner.
Perhaps there is no one left alive to send me the news .... ;-)
Is it true that garlic will protect you from poisonous mushrooms?
PS: I got a message at last telling me that the mushrooms all turned black before she could cook them ... and the turtle is active and has a great appetite now
.
I have read that some wild mushrooms are perfectly good to eat UNLESS you have a
glass of wine with your feast, then the alcohol will create the poison!
