Jeanine and I have decided to create a Japanese-style garden at the entryway to our house. My mother would have been thrilled with this prospect and would have dropped everything to help us with the design. Absent her guiding presence, we met this evening with a gardener whom we have decided to work with. While surveying the area with him, I noticed this golf-ball-sized object, which I later identified as a Lycoperdon Marginatum mushroom, more commonly known as a peeling puffball. Some sources suggest it is safe to eat, while others describe it as poisonous. You gotta wonder who decides to eat a mushroom hoping to determine its toxicity. In Mexico, the puffball is used to produce auditory hallucinations, although chemical analysis of fruit bodies has not revealed the presence of any substances that would cause this effect.