Fungi

Autumn may be a time of mists and mellow fruitfulness but its also a time for fungi. I absolutely love these tiny organisms, the way the push up through the damp autumn soil or appear in crooks of branches. Artists and illustrators have been inspired by these amazing feats of nature since forever. Has their been an illustrated book of fairy-tales that doesn’t include the archetypal fly agaric? Some have suddenly appeared in my garden, I say suddenly because they literally appear overnight. The fly agaric seems to like being near our silver birches.

The garden is also graced with puffballs (or puffies as I knew them as a kid). These apparently make good eating when they’re young - unlike the fly agaric which is a definite no, no! In their first appearance they look innocent enough, white and round like a mushroom should be, but as time goes on they dry up and begin to release their smokey spores. Me and my childhood pals used to giggle with excitement when we came across their dried out husks before unceremoniously stamping on them to see their wisps of ‘smoke’. Oh the joys of a 70s childhood!

Interestingly, ancient excavations have unearthed caches of dried out puffballs, always alongside bee keeping paraphernalia. It is thought that the fungi were used to render the bees sleepy so ancient folks could safely collect their honey. Smart thinking!

Along with my family, I recently found myself in a forest on the edge of Loch Tay. A beautiful spot in every direction but what really attracted our attention was a glade full of the tiniest toadstools. My 13 year old daughter loves a bit of nature photography so we spent a happy afternoon focusing of the forest floor and trying to capture the most delicate nature of these enticing fungi. So magical!

Its all very well becoming transfixed by the natural world but where does it lead us? In my case, these tiny details often find their way into my metalwork…as in this little tableaux featuring a mouse nibbling a toadstool. Keep an eye on my socials for more metalwork that might just include some tiny fungi.