Older, but no wiser

This appeared in the garden out of nowhere yesterday, the way mushrooms are wont to do:



According to my little pocket guide to mushrooms and toadstools, this is a Morchella Elata. The guide goes on to say: “As far as true mushroom gourmets are concerned, the Morels are easily the best of the edible spring fungi although unfortunately none of them are very common.”

So if they're rare, where did half a dozen of these suddenly spring from? My guess is that the spores came in with a pack of bark chippings, used to cover the beds and keep the weeds down. Quite likely, since the guide says "found under conifers" and the bark has a strong pine fragrance.

Just above are these delightful little flowers, known, for obvious reasons, by the common name of bleeding hearts.



Hmmm… the mushroom in the picture looks a pretty good match for the one in the garden, but, delicacy though it may well be, I don’t trust my recognition skills enough to try cooking it. Just in case those hearts are bleeding for someone who was rash enough to try.