Imagine my surprise during a dry, hot summer week to find these fuzzy mushrooms pop up on the front lawn, defying anything I know about the cool, moist environment preferred by such organisms. Because I couldn’t identify what was sprouting, I made up a story that these creatures were the missing link between the fungi kingdom and my recent felt artworks, imagining that they surfaced below my window to inspire further progress with the collection of organic forms growing in my living room studio.
It was fun to monitor them over the ensuing days as they lost their fibrous surface and became more delicate. As weather shifted to a wetter pattern they began to look more like mushrooms instead of the anomalous creatures of the week before.
It was right around then that I started noticing fruits everywhere, from little brown mushrooms (LBMs) at the craft garden, no doubt enjoying new irrigation lines, to various boletes spotted on evening neighborhood walks. I was already a person who delighted in small discoveries such as these and Covid summer has only heightened my appreciation for the spontaneous growth happening all of the time, all around, that I may not have been as present to notice before.
