Photographer David Reid takes these pictures with his iPhone as he walks around a local field.
Hannes Bergthaller and I were talking about how when you find one mushroom, you suddenly start seeing loads. We wondered whether there was some hard wiring in the brain that makes this so, mushrooms being a rich source of many good things. What Hannes and I have both experienced, and I wonder whether David agrees, is that when you find one mushroom, it appears as if the field in which they appear seems to recede into the background and the mushrooms stand out, as if they're calling you.
When I was a kid, my dad used to take me on mushroom hunts with the local mycological society. I had lots of fun running around in the woods, and would get very excited finding any mushroom or fungus - even the poisonous ones. Everyone used to say I was very good at it, but I've never been able to eat them cause I can't stand the texture. I must be the only vegetarian I know who doesn't like a good portobello sandwich. :(
ReplyDeleteHi Tim,
ReplyDeleteOnce I had noticed the first mushroom, the one in the pic on your blog, I began seeing them all over the field, even finding the very small ones deep in the grass. I like what Paul Stamets said in his TED talk about mushrooms reaching up after you as you go by.
Once I find the mushrooms they certainly draw me in, especially if I want to photograph them. This autumn seemed to be a great year for them and they appeared right up until the early snow brought out the sledges to rapidly flattened all. The mushrooms are just one part of the field though and are there for a little of the year only. For me, I find it is the field itself that calls me to it. Forever changing underfoot and in the air, under a big sky traversed by planes from the nearby airport. And, oddly, the flight of the planes help shape out the space that the field is part of. I stand there caught between mushrooms and global networks.
David