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| monotropa hypopitys |
i am over the moon for having finally spotted a dutchman's pipe, or pineflower (mäntykukka) in the wild. they are so rare, and fascinating! this might also be an even rarer subspecies if it is completely hairless. without any chlorophyll, they leech off of a host tree's fungal symbiotic partner for sustenance. they do not necessarily flower each year, living underground as a root. i will follow up on this once it fully opens.
turns out i was a bit too optimistic about the porcinis this year. so far only one. not too many chanterelles, either. none in the usual spots. it's peculiar. i followed a path in the woods that kept on going and ended up in a place i've never been before, an old, fallen down log cabin where arctic bramble grows on a small clearing. the atmosphere was strange, i kept hearing an awful noise which i'm sure was a bird, but it was creepy nonetheless. yet i wanted to stay there. i imagined the people who built that cabin, a hut really, for keeping warm during work in the woods, how they walked the same paths as i, and smelled the meadowsweet and the pines.
on the way back i got a bit lost, but in a good way, because i landed on a bog full of blueberries. and i wasn't really lost, because i knew which way to go, but it's amazing how the trail can just vanish.
the season is sneakily turning. already? i love this time of year but it feels bittersweet. sitting among the blueberry bushes, in the middle of nowhere, i imagined not being alone in there. someone who should not be in my heart has hid away there. i spoke to him, told him the names of all the plants i saw, and what i would cook and bake with the foraging finds. he made me laugh, the funny one as he is. i wish it could be for real but it is what it is.
a mushroom omelette for one. and meadowsweet tea.
is it just me, or is this lizard giving me the finger?
