Fungi foraging fridays…

Nothing better at the end of an ‘interesting’ working week than to wander along winding leafy paths, immersed in autumn colours and yelping excitedly at every fungi find. We are not harvesting any of them this season but keeping a record of where they are, and doing our best to photograph and identify each different type. So far, we have found over 20 different types.

Research has been part of my life for over 25 years but none of the projects, papers or publications I have undertaken or completed have given me the same sense of excitement as discovering the identity of these little gems about the forest.

In his paper Fungi, Folkways and Fairy Tales: Mushrooms & Mildews in Stories, Remedies & Rituals, from Oberon to the Internet, Frank Dugan (2008), spoke of how the Celts have been recognised as having a special relationship with fungi, that has been manifest in the association between fairies, fairy rings, puffballs and the like, with ancient pagan beliefs and practices. This is often on the presumption that beliefs in fairies (‘fairy-faith’) are reflective of the relegation of pre-Christian deities to the fairy realm………..maybe I really am a Fairy Princess after all!!! 🧝‍♀️

Mushrooms

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door

(Sylvia Plath)