Blood Mushroom
(Not a stunning picture, but enough to prove I'm not making this up!)
In
the afternoon, a flock of starlings blackened the branches of the fat trunked
ash. I had left my desk to witness the disturbance. The sun shone, and the bird
shapes shrieked.
Last
night Mr tried his best not to run over a rabbit. It had a poor instinct for
car tyres.
Leaves
fell to our windscreen, pale in the headlights, whirling ghostly. The world was
cold and dark and beautiful, the sky thick with dreams.
This
morning we did not go walking in the woods because of the boom of echoing shot.
We went to the unturned fields instead, trod badger paths, found an old hedge
boundary in a steep neglected copse.
In the
coppice I was looking for a mushroom that Boy and I found, growing in a tree
base. Light brown, soft, oozing bright ruby dots. At first glance, it struck us
as a recent kill site. But then, on second take, the gently sickened awe, to
view stigmatic fungus.
Things
lately have a strange feel, pushing over the edge of eerie, into a kind of
aesthetic macabre. This evening the moon back lit mottled deep grey cloud and
made haloes and I nearly drove into the hedge. There's a beauty that can pull
the life out of you, not through malice but through profundity.
To view some facts and pictures for bleeding mushrooms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydnellum_peckii
Can I confess something to you? I'm afraid to click your link.
ReplyDeleteThat last sentence has me haunted more than anything, though.
I'm going to try to get the photo to load up again later- weird as it is, there is a mushroom that exudes a red liquid. It grows nestled in tree roots and helps the tree get nutrients, so it is a lot lovelier than it looks! On writing the last sentence I knew you would connect with that, as soon as the words came out, because I could have described it as seeing God.
ReplyDeletePhoto now included! Doesn't look any where near as dramatic as we felt on finding it, but worth sharing, I hope!
ReplyDeleteWow! Very cool post. Mushrooms are the oddest sort of plants, and sometimes the most fascinating.
ReplyDeleteyou are an excellent scene setter! i could take some lessons here!
ReplyDeleteThe photo has impact.
ReplyDeleteLily, I wrote about you in an email to a friend the other day. I don't have the email anymore but I did want you to know that I count it my very good fortune to know you -- to the point where I tell others about it!
Thank you Tyrean and Tara :-)
ReplyDeleteSuze, I feel quite bashful now- that is a stunner of a compliment! Thank you lovely lady :-)