This year Granny and Grandad have experienced a small invasion.
While unexpected and not necessarily their ideal ‘look’ for the front garden, there is something magical about these rotund little visitors that has meant my mum and dad haven’t rushed to dig them up.
I mean, how cute is that? Potentially lethal maybe, but aren’t you just picturing a tiny silk winged fairy with a vest made from silver birch leaves and a skirt made from rose petals?
And here, do you see a big flat mushroom or nature’s table? I bet at about 1am this is teeming with fairy folk drinking buttercup wine and dandelion beer and dancing in large circles surrounded by fireflies and glow worms.
And how cute would this look in the hair of a tiny little goth fairy with stripy tights and Docs?
Some of you think I’ve gone a bit weird right now don’t you? But I was a kid brought up on fairy tales, fed on Enid Blyton, nourished by the Folk of the Far Away Tree, and Misses E and M were entranced by their fungal friends and trod lightly amongst them, careful not to damage the delicate forms that led so easily to thoughts of mystical lands and a tiny world of other.
So allow me this one moment of whimsy, this one moment of simpler times, of childhood imagings, of fairy tale fantasy.
Sighhhhh.
No, just a bit longer…
A few more seconds…
Ok, I’m done.
Now, don’t you think these two look like leather bottoms?
Or is it just me?
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October 14th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
They are beautiful fungi, I’m sure the fairies were not far away. I’m reading a secret seven book to Picklessister at night and this evening there was a mention of someone called ’stumpy dick’. I kid you not! SNORT!!
October 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
EVERYTHING looks like leather bottoms to me! Haha
Seriously – I love the mushrooms! They are cute…
October 14th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Fungi tend to kickstart my imagination as well – it’s hard to be weird when compare to me.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
leather bum bums for sure.
I love this post. truely made me smile. I love the whimsy, and the darling photos. 
thanks for sharing, Jo. 
October 14th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
You mean toadstools really are red with white spots? I thought that was just a kind of joke. It does look a bit plastic on closer scrutiny… I strongly suspect that you bought it in a garden centre, chucked away the fishing gnome on the top, and put it on the grass for the photo shoot. Rumbled!
October 14th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Oh, this made me smile huge! I love the pictures and I would totally have been imagining the same things.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I totally get what you are saying here. They are lovely
October 14th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Absolutely look like leather bums. Nice.
We don’t get those red and spotty ones here… I wish we did, they really are made of whimsy.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Actually they looked like over baked bottoms to me. lol I do think the mushrooms are magical and spark all kinds of delicious imaginings.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Those are so adorable they don’t even look real. They definitely look like at least a hookah smoking caterpillar should be sitting on top… Or maybe some little blue Smurfs living inside…
October 15th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Heheh, you crack me up.
And I love fairy stories and myths. It’s a secret indulgence for me. Like my love of dragons and other mythological creatures.
And those mushrooms are awesome! The pictures are fantastic!
October 15th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I think it looks so pretty
Save the toadstools!
October 15th, 2008 at 2:20 am
We also have a garden full of fungi. I warn the children about the dangers, but would love to learn more about them, to know which are edible. Perhaps I could make a wild mushroom soup?
October 15th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Toadstools and mushrooms, which are which and which are edible? Obviously, you don’t eat toadstools but how can one tell if it’s a toadstool or mushroom? (Mind you, I’d stay clear of the red one and the leather bums).
October 15th, 2008 at 6:15 am
you have much prettier toadstools than we do. ours are just short and greyish.
and i grew up on enid blyton, too. i knew exactly what you were talking about.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:29 am
I love the red one..it looks like the mushroom I put on my Christmas tree—but I think this year I might add the buttocks ones…
How cute.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Where on earth did they spring from?
Or should I say, where from fairyland they spring from?
I love them. The leather bums look like leather bums and I love nature’s table. And of course, the first one. Never actually seen one of those in real life.
Did you get over to see how you inspired me? – Irish Mental Health Hotline. You probably have seen it before… (it is an old one)
October 15th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Yay for the Magic Far Away Tree!!! What about Little Grey Rabbit? Did you have her too? And the Flower Fairies? Ooh, oh, and of course Beatrix Potter. Did you find fairy rings or just the toadstools? Lovely lovely lovely *sigh*
October 15th, 2008 at 8:52 am
have you read The Borrowers? i think you and the kidlettes would enjoy it
October 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Picklesmum, did you manage not to laugh, hee hee.
Sybil, I’m guessing you would like Lederhosen, hee hee.
Kim, you are not weird, just quirky, which is good.
Corey, I just think they’re so lovely. There seem to be even more today. Thanks hon.
Iota, I promise it was real. I’ve never seen one before so it was mad to find it in my mum and dad’s garden. I was really surprised by the mixture of types there too.
Erin thanks, they’re lovely aren’t they?
Mie, they are. I want to shrink so I can sit on one.
Thalia’s Child, they are adorable aren’t they? So so cute.
DFTF, ‘baked bottoms’ hee hee.
Hilary, it did make me think of Alice in Wonderland actually, but I’d forgotten about the Smurfs. I’ll look out for them now.
Lilacs thanks. And I like a bit of myth and magic too.
Little Mummy, they’re still there, and they still look amazing.
Adventure Mother, I’m like you, but I wouldn’t dare. Mr B picked field mushrooms recently, but I looked them up as he was washing them and we realised he had two different species one of which gave gastric problems so we threw them all away just on case.
Dumdad, I’d love to have the confidence to pick and eat some but I wouldn’t trust me to do that hee hee. Your right though, the red ones and the bums look iffy.
Laurie, I so love Enid Blyton.
CrazyCath, that’s the weird thing. How did they get there? I love it.
Belle, I had all The Little Grey Rabbit Tales/ I just gave them to Miss E. She’s not so impressed though.
Daryl I love the Borrowers. I must read it with the girls.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I love and adore wild mushrooms and when I was a child, I had an aunt who knew which ones were edible and we’d search for them in the woods and have them for lunch. I would not try such a thing on my own now. I have visions of a horrible death due to eating the wrong ones. Your parents are very lucky to have so many and so nicely spread apart, as if they were planted that way. Surely a fairy must have had a hand in that?
October 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am
wonderful post – we always wonder always when we see toadstools great pictures sandy tell me again how to make blog money I’m desperate..sandy