DeeKnow’s Grotto

All this lovely rain we've had over the last 24hrs in the Waikato does have an upside, and can only make for one thing. Lots of exciting fungi popping up in gardens all around Hamilton.

Over the last 4 weeks or so I've been out and about with me camera taking snaps of lovely mushrooms and other fungi of various shapes and sizes, getting to grips with the macro on the camera and generally having a blast crawling around at ground zero instead of existing blissfully and ignorantly at 6-feet-up all the time.

In that time I've taken snaps of some 40 totally different varieties and I'm afraid to say have become totally obsessed. Kym thought it was mildly entertaining at first, cute even, but now her attitude has changed somewhat and not only is she bored with following me around the neighbourhood she has in fact totally dismissed the pursuit as "nerdy and sad".

This may turn out to be yet another of my short term interests, but I'm still enthusiastic enough about it that I've started trying to recruit other people to come out mushy-hunting with me, and successfully con'd the lads into a mission down into the bowels of Vike's gulley a few weekends back.

A few worldly folks I've mentioned the mushroom thing to have raised an eyebrow or two, grinned, and made some comment like "oh yeah, mushrooms aye?, right...." quite clearly making references to the magic variety as they put on their best Beavis and Butthead laugh. I try to explain that its not what this is about, even so a few enthusiastic souls have actually gotten quite excited about the prospect until I make it clear that I'm not actually ingesting *any* of the varieties I come across, at which point they look a little deflated.

The thing that amazes me is the diversity of these little stuctures in what is supposed to be the low season. I cant wait for Summer and Autum now when there are supposedly many more about. Hell, I may even have to buy some reference books to help identify them. That'll really get Kym going.

So, are you up for it or what?  Check out my photos here for a sample of what I've spotted so far.

9:47:50 PM