Deep in the ancient oak woods a little sprinkle of magic has escaped. It’s sparkling in the leaves which are clinging on to the brach tips, quivering in the warm autumn breeze. And it’s popping up in wonderful shapes and patterns among the fallen leaves on the woodland floor below.
As if from nowhere, this beautiful structure has pushed up through the leaves in the blink of an eye. Last week there was nothing to be seen here, and now this beautiful woodland fruit stretches into the light, embodied magic.
The deeper you look, the more layers of magic are revealed. Whole clusters of community housing are nestled in the trees and grass, each one more inviting than the last. Tiny homes for clans of fairies, whisper softly among themselves.
Out in the suburbs, among the green belt, the homes have spread out into luxurious gardens. Here the residents enjoy more space and light, and the lawns are as soft as velvet. Each one topped with perfectly matching roofs. If you look closely you might see a fairy dog chasing a ball across the sunlit grass.
Some of the homes are rather large statements, and this one screams potions and poison. One bite of this fruit and you too could enter fairyland, and its shape shifting characters. The red is impossibly deep, and the fluffy white spots too cute to ignore. Your life would never be the same again after crossing this threshold.
This tiny highrise pushes up through holly and acorns, it’s roots hidden deep in the decaying forest floor. The tunnels and threads beneath the surface spread for miles unseen, servicing the little pagodas.
And the gills and frills of this bad boy dwarf the competition. Looming above the leaves, drinking in the sunlight, it opens to release thousands of spores into the unseen magic of the air. Soon it will fold back into itself, it’s magic spent, it’s purpose filled, and the soft earth will crumble it back into her heart.
breathofgreenair 
Your photographs are magical. So wish you’d do a book. (I truly think you could find a publisher.) Lovely, lovely, lovely. They bring me back to Scotland so quickly (which is never a bad thing). Thanks.
White and black magic are both there on the woodland floor! Really evocative words and beautiful images.
Truly a magic wonderland
It really is, down there among the mushrooms 🙂
Pingback: URL
I love your writing – wonderful! And the photos, the close-ups. Love the red one most. So sweet 🙂
Thank you, and there is something so intriguing and mysterious about mushrooms….the red spotted one in particular always make me feel transported to fairy land just by seeing them in the woods among the trees 🙂
Yes indeed … thanks for providing this poetic and beautiful view of the fungi. You’ve made them come alive in ways which I could not. See, http://wp.me/s1yRFa-shroom! I am thankful for folks like you who have your very special view of life. D
David I think you made mushrooms come alive in a very different, but just as special way in your shroom post. What a sensuous photo, and so much science….but then I’m a huge fan of mushrooms, they fascinate me with their hidden mysteries 🙂
A magical post indeed. LOVE the vast, broad, low light tree!
Thank you….I’ve shot that tree a few times in different light, at different times of the year, but this image really worked for me….the way you can see the branches as arms reaching out and up towards the low light. The oak woods are lovely at this time of year 🙂
It should be painted! It’s wonderful!
Mushroom Magic an ordinary Tuesday! Thank you for taking us again…to your fairies and landscapes of words and pictures. Beautiful they are – whole worlds.
It’s my pleasure to share my wild imagination….it’s so lovely to hear others enjoying it 🙂
Beautiful!
Thanks Cee 🙂
I don’t seem to be able to link to your blog from my comments….it’s as though there’s a link missing. Plus although I follow you, you don’t seem to pop up on my reader 😦 The joys of wordpress!
What delightful mushroom magic … I do love the fly agaric … a whiff of danger can be rather enticing at times 😉
Gosh .. what AM I saying Seonaid … must have been wandering round your little secret wood for too long ….
Oh Poppy that will never do, staying too long can have some serious side effects……quick click those heels and think of home 🙂
** phew … made it 😉
Nice stroll with your story too … tiny homes in the woods are my preference 🙂
It would be so cool to live in a little mushroom house 🙂
It gives me great pleasure to look at your photos 🙂 Now, I am going to read your text…
Thank you Paula…..separate consideration for each element 🙂 lovely to hear you enjoyed the photos.
It’s too bad you live so far away, otherwise you could show me those magic mushrooms 😀
All the best,
Hanna
If you’re here at the right time of year it would be my pleasure 🙂
Your shots are as magical as ever! Sadly, our mushroom season is now past…
Thanks Fi, it was great to catch them on sun filled days, which we’ve had plenty of. But I suspect that a couple of sharp night frosts will have ended our season too…..I might go and check today 🙂
Aww I love this Seonaid, especially the high rise! I can see a whole children’s book here!
Me too Gilly, it takes me back to childhood and tales of fairies and forest folk 🙂
Much fun to be had in the mushroom woods!
Beautiful post, great photography … Must go out and look for the last mushrooms in our (secret) woods, as soon as these rainstorms are over.
Ooh, secret woods and mushroom magic sound like a wonderful combination….can’t wait to see your results. These were taken in a really old oak wood where lots of the trees are over 400 years old…..so Im guessing the mushroom rings have also been here for a long a time…..year after year.
Love your little mushroom communities, Seonaid, and the magical tale you weave around them. The red one does look like a beacon signalling extreme danger.
So lovely to know you enjoyed my little escape into fairyland. I find it nourishes and relaxes me….so much fun to be found among the mushrooms! The red one is a Fly Agaric, and it’s definitely signalling danger 🙂
I love your mushrooms!
Why thank you Mrs Bushranger 🙂
The woods are full of them this year, and it’s a bumper year for nuts so the squirrels are happy too!
This is utterly delightful…you do YOU so well, and that brings the magic of your beautiful Scotia to the rest of us who dream happier and wish wilder thanks to you, Seonaid (pronounced properly, mine ye) 🙂
Liana, what a gorgeous comment….I love thinking of you dreaming happier and wishing wilder, as a result of my post 🙂 I can really only do me, so I’m striving to do me as fully as I can…..I think it improves the resulting creations!
Ooooh, these are the best mushroom photos that I’ve seen so far!
Thanks Amy, it’s great when you catch then in some sunlight…..they do like the shadows 🙂
how vivid and magikal, that fly agaric would be worth a pretty penny around here 😉 notice how fast it has grown, it still has mud on its roof 🙂
The speed they grow is incredible, and I get ridiculously excited when I see the shiny red cap glowing among the fallen leaves. I had no idea mushrooms were worth money….well other than the fancy ones the restaurants like to use!
ye fly garic would be worth something per gram or ounce to the right people 🙂
it doesn’t grow in my area but we have some other interesting ones, i find it interesting that rodents etc nibble them.
where i lived in Wales, Liberty Cap mushrooms grow in cow fields and they are sometimes kicked over, as if the cows know of the hallucinogens hidden inside 🙂
Twas a very good year for mushrooms, especially the LBMs (Little Brown Mushrooms, as my mushroom teacher calls them). Loved those little colonies and your commentary – very magical. The Fly Agaric is exceptionally beautiful, but as you said, you wouldn’t want to get too familiar with it.
You have a mushroom teacher? I want one too 🙂
Imagine the school where mushrooms is a subject!
Glad you enjoyed the post.
Yes, I took a mushroom course once and the teacher is so delighted with the area I live in that she came to my house and we spent a whole afternoon finding mushrooms in the woods. There must have been close to 100 different kinds. but I will still only eat 3 kinds that I can reliably identify: morels, chanterelles and chicken of the wood. Now if I could only find me a Fly Agaric….
Ooh, I’ve been searching for a Fly Agaric! Beautiful 🙂 We always told stories of the different faerie folk that lived in amongst different types of fungi. I’ve always thought of Fly Agaric as being a gnomes toadstool 🙂
Oh yes, I can see that…..for me it’s the mushroom the caterpillar sits on in Alice in Wonderland…..and the mushroom found in fairy tale woods….the witches favourite 🙂
Oh yes, one for the cauldron indeed! Almost infamous for its Alice in Wonderland connection 😉 But for me it was always about the hat the faerie would be wearing and how they could disguise themselves amongst the toadstools, or get a new hat of course 😉
Your first photo is amazing and the pretty mushroom shots are making me see them in a different light. 🙂 Thanks!
My pleasure, so glad you enjoyed the post. I get ridiculously excited when I come across such wonderful mushrooms…..just scattered through the leaves 🙂
You must have signed up to follow this blog. Just click unfollow if you don’t want emails 🙂
They are truly the stuff of fairyland – I should bring more into mine!
You should, what’s a fairy wood without some crazy mushrooms!
Love the magic of this post, the way you put it all into words is truly delicious, I just felt like a dwarf at once, talking with that fairy dog you mentioned, under a soft and shiny brown roof. Sleep well! I will at least. 🙂
Rosa, I love that you chatted with the fairy dog. I always get sucked into these tiny mushroom landscapes, and my imagination runs free 🙂 Enjoy those dreams….
devil’s workshop…:-))
Indeed, all sorts of mischief afoot 🙂