Just when you thought it was safe to read this blog -- it's slime mold time again! After writing about slime mold appearing in the (then enclosed) solar greenhouse on April 22nd, spot on two months later, we're seeing it outdoors now. 
My husband lay some bricks and flagstones around the apron of our front stair landing. This required him to excavate about 3" of depth in the "lawn" (which was very compacted and mostly broadleaf plantain and other tough-as-nails plants). The loam was much richer than either of us had expected; he put it in the compost heap. He used this loam to build a ramp for the wheelbarrow to get to the top of the compost pile, as you can see in the photo above; the center portion is compressed from the barrow's wheel. And yesterday on either side of the compressed section appeared that beautiful golden stuff that is the first visible, fruiting stage of the slime mold. The right side quickly turned into the puffy form, the one that looks like expanding spray insulation (at least to me it does -- click on the image above right for a larger view). The left side remained golden, though a bit less so, all through today.
It fascinates me that the slime mold was in the soil all these years, just waiting for the right level of something -- light? -- to arrive, and BAM! It fruits immediately. Son of a gun...
