A colony of fungi.

{A cover of The American Girl (1935) sports a forlorn frog seated atop a mushroom.}

Of mushrooms I know they are good for the sitting upon (if one is tiny and an inhabitant of some fairy kingdom); they are tasty when cooked, or so I am told; and a great many of them are poisonous: Agrippina poisoned her Caesar Claudius with a mushroom empoisoned "knowing that he was greedy of such meats” and Emperor Charles VI was apparently so fond of fungi “that he forbade their use in his States lest there should be a shortage”.  It is also said, that endless wild dancing ensues if you step into a circle of mushrooms in a lush and grassy area (according to English folklore). Some may see this as an area marking the periphery of perennial underground mycelial growth but others see it for what it is, a fairy ring of the fairy realm.

But you can tread easily here, friends, for we have neither fairy rings nor poisonous fungi. Instead we have gathered and arranged for you drawings, photographs and collages in celebration of a colony of not rats this time but fungi.

And this time around, Shari joins us.


{A colony of fungi. Photograph, Shari.}


{A colony of fungi. Photograph, Shari.}


{Any new arrivals at the colony were a bit of concern to the 'Old Colonialists'. Pen and pencil drawing, Elaine Haby.}


{Mushrooms sprout underfoot, (I). Watercolour and pencil drawing, Louise Jennison.}


{Mushrooms sprout underfoot, (II). Watercolour and pencil drawing, Louise Jennison.}


{Mushrooms sprout underfoot, (III). Watercolour and pencil drawing, Louise Jennison.}


{Mushrooms sprout underfoot, (IV). Watercolour and pencil drawing, Louise Jennison.}

In the legendary arms of Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) I have placed a precariously stacked colony of fungi. (I am hoping I have not selected any poisonous fungi; this was not my intention.) I doubt there is any correlation between Ruth and mushrooms, toadstools, call them what you will; from what I have read, Egypt and her goddess Isis (sighted on a poster for Egyptian Deities cigarettes), and later all things Indian, were where her interests lay.


{Ruth St. Denis was capable of making every little thing appear effortlessly graceful (I). Collage, Gracia Haby.}


{Ruth St. Denis was capable of making every little thing appear effortlessly graceful (II). Collage, Gracia Haby.}


{Ruth St. Denis was capable of making every little thing appear effortlessly graceful (III). Collage, Gracia Haby.}

Mushrooms come on Polish sewing labels, too. They don't come on hotel stickers.

Next time? We'll bring you a galaxy of stars, should you be lucky.