Sep 28, 2010

A Full Invasion

Sylvia Plath - 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.


Even the trees can't escape. 

 I just noticed 2 mushrooms in this photo. I was only aiming to photograph one.



 I call this the ballerina mushroom on account of its tutu.

But, the top view is pretty prosaic.

Remember the penis mushroom? This is what it becomes AFTER it lives a few days as a phallus.

And then this.

 And, after that, this.

Apparently the penis mushroom is called a shaggy mane, and it is one of the inky caps. It's edible, folks. 8-/

These wee golden fellows were huddled together under some pine mulch.

A few more photographs from today:

A Manitoba autumn day. (The little building is our sauna)

Sun through Oak.

Sun through Elm.

If I don't blog for awhile, it just means I have sun in my hair and leaves in my shoes.

Or...the mushrooms got me.



Sep 27, 2010

Oh, how I love this:



It won't change your life, but it will make your day a little more magical. I can almost guarantee it.

(I want an air piano now.)

Sep 14, 2010

Mushaboom...

We have been invaded. Seriously.







What kind of mushroom is this??

Say it with me: O-M-G!!!! (blech!)


Apparently autumn = mushroom season out here in the wilds of Manitoba. Or...well...at least in the wilds of my yard. Everywhere I look, I discover a new mushroom. They unsettle me, the way they show up overnight...poking their silent, creepy selves up out of the ground to be stepped on unwittingly, or touched accidentally.

Have you ever lifted a damp board, or a rock, say...only to discover several surprised insects skittering away? Do you remember that strange revulsion that tingles up and down your spine and makes you want to dance a dance of convulsive horror? That is how I feel about mushrooms.

Especially that phallic one. What...you didn't notice?

(Yeah right.)

Flat little toadstools near the apple tree. Little umbrella under a pine. Phallus by the driveway (and it's still growing. It's an inch taller since yesterday.) Nasty brain-like thing near my flower bed.

*shiver*

Help?

In other news, this is happening at a rapid pace:






Well, summer...it was good while it lasted, right?