Category Archives: connect with nature

The Foreshadowing

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The summer’s dark green in the forest trees–only a few days of cooler weather and showers will bring…

 

Amanita muscaria–fly agaric

The iconic red and white mushroom, Amanita muscaria, found in all temperate climates under groves dominated by pines, birches or spruces, is most widely known as the fly agaric.

Easily identifiable by young and old, but confusing.

Poisonous, but edible if properly prepared.

Hallucinogenic–happiness and euphoria.

Myths, fairytales.

Delighting people from time immemorial.

Prominent in Alice in Wonderland, the Smurfs and Mario, the Italian plumber.

So…, what will it be for you?

Go out and find one first.

Under its cap even the little ones are safe.

Luckier than a four-leaf clover.

Band of Zwergs playing sweet music–have they eaten the mushroom?

At home.

…Always Watching…

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They are… always watching…

…always watching…

I live in a heavily touristed mountain region. Guests from around the world in 2026 come for an hour or two to see the Jungfrau. The Jungfrau? A mountain? 

Then the modern tourists are off to their next destination. Few are aware that this Jungfrau Region has been walked by the likes of Tolkien and Byron. Tolkien and Byron visited when the only means of transport were their own two legs. They walked. They slept. They walked again—over days. For them this region was life-changing. Why, you might ask?

Because, as one put it: “I saw the mountains but the mountains did not see me. I wasn’t there long enough.” Let me interpret. The enormity of these mountains, the enormity of their physical presence is the clue. They have a time frame, nay, a speed of communication that does not fit into today’s tourist drive by.

Byron captured it in Canto 3 of his ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’. Tolkien captured it in the Rivendel landscape in his ‘Lord of the Rings’. The Jungfrau Region mountains’ mood and communication comes via their microclimate, their clouds,  their waterfalls—sunrise, sunset, moonrise over days, weeks, seasons.

They are… always watching…