This year seven families, gathered at the Holly Lodge Centre on a perfect Autumn day. The session began with a lively introduction to the magical world of fungi presented by our expert, Janet Bostock. There are over 1.5 million species, and they play a crucial role in our lives. We then explored the Nature Trail to see what we could find. Afterwards, artist Claire McCormack got everyone drawing some of the fungi specimens Janet had brought along. The idea is to encourage people to look really closely at these remarkable organisms.
A seasonal touch was added by the appearance of Rudolf, complete with luminous nose. While reindeer may not actually fly, local herdsmen in Lapland and their reindeer did get high on a ‘magic mushroom’ – the red and white spotted fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), producing hallucinatory experiences! Is this how Rudolf got his red nose?
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- The Search Begins
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- Found Something
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- Mycelium’s Tangled Web
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- How Fungi Communicate
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- Making Art
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- Dad Joins In
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- This is what we are going to do
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- The Youngest at Work
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- Some Results on Display
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- And More
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- An Artist and Her Work
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- Fly Agaric and other Mushrooms