The cognitive visual-spatial symptoms I suffer were a bit off today, but I thought a woodland walk would be a positive idea, even if a little difficult. I grabbed my friend Chris, as I wanted the company and needed a second pair of eyes as my vision was all over the shop. We collected a full basket of Penny Buns, Birch Bolete, Chanterelles, and a young Ox Tongue Fungi. It was lovely to see all the Porcelain mushrooms popping up, but too young to be picked as yet. It was quite a difficult walk as I couldn’t focus properly while moving and had delayed vision. However, what is it they say? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At the end of the day, I’ll enjoy a Penny Bun with faggots and mushy peas. A meal to look forward to.
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I really envy you with your walk but well done. I also envy you your forage basket and its contents, you are so lucky to have the skills and to be able to exercise them.
I might be green with envy but I delight in your pictures, your telling of your tale and that you share all this with us. Thank you.
Keep on keepin’ on 
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Rups, I really like your spirit. Your positive attitude is the only way to deal with the body not working just right yet. All the things you’re doing will bring about improvement. I’m jealous of the beautiful woods you have to walk through!! There’s nothing like that that I know of in California. 
Jeanne
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Hi you lucky truffle hound, our visual problems seem same but I managed to get chum a bag full of sweet corn once the harvester had finished, haven’t got myself motivated to go penny bun hunting but walked my sons flipping springers , to paraphrase Howard Carter of Tutankhamen fame, I could smell wonderful things but couldn’t see them. The horn of plenty grows where we walked but being purple did not stand out,a cousin of the chanterelle . Spied a lovely apple growing in a neglected garden so got to make a few enquiries 
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I tell you what @Bobbi, I never tire of surprising myself. As I began the walk, my right leg started playing up, every time I went uphill I felt as if I was going to fall backwards, my depth of focus and ability to focus was so bad that I was reaching for something to steady myself every ten minutes, a few times I thought I was going to just spin out of control and tumble to the ground … I did this for an hour and a half. Came back, sat upstairs and ate mackerel from the tin along with a bag of salt ‘n’ vinegar crisps, and drank a cup of tea. Now, will rest for forty minutes, and carry on with the evening. Nothing inimical occurred, did it? Nothing perilous or even mildly disconcerting, yet had I let anxiety make the decision for me before heading out, I would have stayed at home. It’s hard to remind myself this when bogged down in anxious feelings, hopefully these little shares will remind myself and others too.
Yes, keep on keepin’ on, that’s the ticket. 
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Diolch @axnr911, most of the time it’s strong-willed stubbornness and the survival instinct of bravado that is disguised as positivity Ah, you have beaches though. I am nowhere near a beach, just mountains and woodland. 
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@Rups sounds like you had a successful forage despite your vision issues. I’m not a mushroom lover myself but do envy you the forage & woods.
Enjoy a restful evening.
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I’ve never understood why the Horn of Plenty, a delicious, edible fungi is also known as Trompette de la mort (Trumpet of death?) The only purple mushroom I have found in my patch is the Amethyst Deceiver, it’s a stunning, gem of a mushroom. My prize find today was the Beefsteak or Ox Tongue mushroom. We may very well endure similar visual concerns, I’ve got a feeling mine have been exacerbated by a perfect storm of brain damage, the stroke hit all the important vestibular-oculomotor neurotransmitters with enough precision to render that function inept. I enjoyed reading your tale of gathering corn. I did make a corny joke in my reply.
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Mushrooms are like Marmite for some people. However, there are one or two mushrooms I could introduce you to which might shift your palate a bit.
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In the end, I just thought, what is the worst that is going to happen? If I have another stroke, I’m going to have one whether I’m walking in the woods or sitting in my chair. That’s mainly why I insisted my friend accompany me, I was feeling a little fragile, and doing too much fence sitting.
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That’s quite a good day’s foraging. I’m dead jealous! Unfortunately, if I tried walking through terrain like that, I’d be flat on my face in seconds!
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Rups
Would love to come on a walk with you and tap into your erudition re mushrooms. I found a v large and old ceps but when I cut it it turned blue/green. Cooked, it seemed to look and taste like a penny bun though I was the only one who would eat it. Do you reckon it was? Magga
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Shwmae Magga, possibly a Bay Bolete, but there are a few that turn blue, including the Devil’s Bolete which is toxic. Usually, Red netting or spotting on the stem of a bolete is a reason to not pick. You are brave to have eaten that fungi, not being 100% sure.
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Rups
Thanks for that. I did some checking with books and google so pretty sure it wasn’t toxic. I just loved your description of mushroom picking and the triumph of determination over difficulties. Do hope you have a splendid mushroom-picking outfit.
Magga
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I hope you all do not mind me commenting on older posts but I find them very helpful. I didn’t realize there were so many with the same or near same vision issues as mine. It is so hard to describe in a way people can understand, at least for me. I can see colors. I can see what I type for a short time, read for a shorter time, but everything is constantly moving until I can no longer tell up from down or right from left. Everyone I see has four noses. I see much better at night with the dim lights or none. Sunshine is nearly impossible to work with. Too much difference in the light bouncing off things. I hope you all have found help to get better with vision and the dizziness, or confusion that comes with it. I am just starting vestibular therapy. It is probably my last hope for driving, unless I can have prism glasses and they work for me. We aren’t talking about that yet, though. I would like to know if any of you have found good ways around the vision or have had improvements.
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Good morning DeAnne no physical problem just slammed head and loss of peripheral vision on left from both eyes I was told eyes healthy, they are not problem it’s the area of the brain that controlled that aspect of my vision that’s been damaged. Not likely to repair but live in hope.Garish bright colours and bright lights were problem early on. Could not face going into shops with vibrant displays. Bought wrap around sunglasses to cope with Sunshine and car headlights, Reading difficult to begin with then slowly eased myself into it. Brain could not cope with fiction so read non fiction that I was familiar with in short sessions. Recently tackled gentle fiction and a page or two a day completed the book. Slowly coming to terms with fact all our brains are different and our strokes different we may have had same stroke as some but our stroke is unique to us. Having said that.
Hearing other people’s experiences and how they cope, their advice and suggestions and encouragement has helped me enormously.
This forum is fantastic.
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I agree wholeheartedly! I know my situation is completely different from others here but we still have so much in common and knowing others coping strategies is priceless. Because my stokes were embolic in nature, I had 2 aneurysms, one brain hemorrage, and 19 ischemic strokes that landed in numerous areas of my brain, spine, spleen, liver and kidneys. A septic shower they called it. I am quite surprised to still be here, let alone up and moving and doing as much as I do. As you know, sometimes it doesn’t feel like we are doing much because we are comparing with before our incidents. I am often angry with myself for not doing enough. You all have been a godsend for me to remind me to do what I can, rest when I need to, and not feel guilty or too burdensome. Thank you so much!
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@DeAnn and everyone else who writes and reads on this forum.
If you do not realise this then we need you to.
When you write with honesty about the world you find yourself in, the ways you have tried to deal with it all and wisdom from whatever source, either your own or what you have come across, then you are making a very real contribution to this forum and community.
Others both now and in the future can use this as a light to open up the darkness.
We arrive here alone, in pitch dark, in some sort of a mind boggling maze. We feel totally defeated and at the mercy of everybody and everything. Our hopes and plans are torn to shreds. How do we move forward? Is trying to get back what we have lost just a series of backward steps. Is it really totally hopeless with no real direction possible?
Are these just flowery words that point nowhere?
So many questions, so much emptiness.
At some stage we discover we are not alone. Whether we have rejected help or are clinging on blindly hoping for something better, suddenly we see others going through this same ‘thing’ that has captured us.
I dare not make promises, but I think as a community whether formed voluntarily or not we have something that can give us a direction, can show a way to carry on. Our struggles, difficulties, problems, when expressed and shared become something which we can overcome.
Together we can begin to see how things really are and begin to move around no longer in darkness.
Please write about your successes, difficulties, thoughts, the way you are living. To someone somewhere this is a beacon giving them hope and a direction.
Keep on keepin’ on
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I think looking at old posts is a good strategy BUT When my notification send me to a thread and I like a post then see is ayear or 3 old I get confused!!!
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Certainly from where I stand, between total confusion and a glimmer of reason, I prefer to walk towards the glimmer.
To me it matters not whether the flame was lit ten minutes ago, ten days ago or ten thousand years ago.
If it provides me with light to see the path on which I stand and, hopefully, a direction as well, then all is good.
Keep on keepin’ on
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