Pinewoods 2: Of Mushrooms and Mogwit

(Set the Wayback Machine for Pinewoods, Sherman....)

On Monday night, my crew-friend Daniel asked if I wanted to meet the girl who likes mushrooms. "Do I!" I said. She turned out to be mogwit, a rather fabulous Oberlin girl, seen here getting mugged by Emma:

She remembered adfamiliares from Oberlin contras, and more or less remembered me as "that quiet guy who played the guitar". She had recently developed a sharp interest in mycology — which, from my perspective, is just about the most interesting thing a young woman can do — and offered to take me on a mushroom tour. After lunch on Wednesday, I took her up on it.

The weather had been drier than mushrooms like, but as we wandered far afield, on dappled woodsy paths that I'd never known were there, Mog cheerily pointed out dozens of polypores and russulas peeping out from under leaf clutter or squirreling out from the roadside. At each one, she and Daniel waited patiently while I knelt down in the pebbles and leaves and snapped away. At the halfway point, we rested on a bench overlooking Halfway Pond and talked about Muppets and gossip and whether we were teasing Daniel too much (I said no). They showed me how to recognize wintergreen, and ate wild blueberries while I watched suspiciously for signs of deadly blue fakeberry poisoning.

Later in the week, she took me on a (fruitless) quest for the puffballs shield_toad111 claimed to have seen. We got scolded for accidentally trespassing on somebody's property. (To him I say: put up a sign, blueblood!) But it was okay.

Secret to Pinewoods happiness: hang out with adorable mycophiles. If they are forthright and thoughtful and intense and bubbly and spike-haired, with slidey-eyed smiles that make it look like they're about to burst from wanting to share the secret they've got, so much the better.

( More shroomage behind the cut! )

And many many more on Flickr.