or the drought seems over and a’ mushrooming we will go!
After a long hopeless summer with no actual sun, chemical clouds poisoning us but no actual rain from the heavens and all wildlife suffering, we now finally can stop pretending that all is well but at least go to the woods and meadows with glee. For indeed the magical shrooms are poking up their fruiting bodies and giving us a chance to gather some edibles and plenty of medicinals.
I’m a child of the woods from being well, a child! So when I return and shed my shoes and socks I return to mother nature and am oblivious to all that is wrong in the world and return to the fairy realm. I’m little and wide-eyed with wonder, I play, and search, and marvel at it all. I immerse myself into that magical realm, smell the earthy odour, get filthy and lose track of time. All is well again and the false matrix has been excluded, anything can happen you’re in your own fairy tale.
Top tip: Don’t be scared in the woods alone just use the normal precautions of stranger danger, If a man doesn’t have a dog walk the other way. Also make sure you have enough battery in your phone for maps should you get lost. Look at landmarks as you walk along, this can help a lot later. Carry water and extra bags for finds. Take photos of any finds for identification later. Don’t lose track of time it can get dark suddenly at this time of year! Everything looks different in the dark. Stay at woods edge if you’re nervous.
You didn’t hear from me for a while as I couldn’t travel due to my pauper status and even the holiday my son offered seemed out of sync with my book writing and being for some reason reluctant. I had a gut feeling about an innocuous trip to South India and it didn’t feel right. I always trust my gut feelings and I’m always right; it still didn’t stop me from being sad though. This has been a sad year generally for most people and although I caught up with like minded on demos, the zombies shuffling around in central London are a huge drain on your energy and well being so I have been unusually glum.
Now back to nature on short trips I have regained my spark and feel like the old bird you knew. Now instead of kicking sand off my feet I’m kicking off fallen leaves and regaining mycological expertise again!
As a child I used to go mushroom hunting with my dad in the morning to forage some breakfast if possible. Normally we would be successful and we would have some fried up hastily before going to school (he was a teacher so he also went to school!) I think sometimes he would be a little unsure about them and would look at me with morbid fascination and indeed admiration for my perfect faith in him as I chomped my way through a plateful. I did get a lot of knowledge from him however and now I am building up my repertoire. These days I am more cautious though.
My recent walks have a wonderful combo of wood and meadows with a few cows grazing that you bump into totally unaware, which adds a new dimension to that sublime escape from stupid Soho; bumping into cows is excellent and I would recommend it, I mean don’t piss them off but enjoy the bovine bigness and be happy chewing the cud with them. In butterfly meadow at Trent park there are tussocks, except they aren’t really tussocks but anthills. Boy oh boy did I suffer whilst sitting amongst them and the cow pats this summer. They seem to be very ferocious red ones that got into my long johns and punished my folly. I didn’t notice at the time but later huge raised bites had to be treated with some tea tree oil.
I have found parasols and shaggy parasols in that field so nature gives as it takes. Never have I seen the huge number of giant puffballs that I did with my dad in the horse field next to us but I’m hoping that I’ll be surprised by some Chagas or Reishi growing on the trees at least, for looking up is as important while foraging, as gazing down and you need your mushroom eyes in.
Also there I’ve discovered copious amounts of sorrel, dandelions, hips and haws, sloes and other edibles. Some cob nuts are in another grassland and a lot of field mushrooms.
In the woods I’ve stocked up on turkey tail and birch polypore’s as well as occasional edibles but hopefully tomorrow with another rain due later, I will trek off again in search of bluets and boletes tomorrow morning as all the rush hour comes in I will go out, and enter the land via my secret path and hopefully find some trooping mushrooms and plenty of the more meaty varieties to dry and use later. Although I’m not able to go to my usual exotic travelling haunts until the beginning of next year I can still be amazed and happy on these retreats. Wish me luck I’ll report back later this week as to my finds, I’ll have a rosehip tea after writing this to get me in the mood.
OVER AND OUT FROM A RATHER TRAPPED OLD BIRD WITH ALL MY LOVE XXX
Old Bird Travels Solo! 