Articles

Happy Holidays from Taylor Lockwood

I wasn’t feeling that well but after waiting through three weeks of cold weather, the warm rains had returned and it was time to go.

I would be looking for Clathrus ruber, which is not that uncommon in the woodchips of planted areas around the San Francisco bay area. Common or not, a photo up to my expectations had eluded me for years.

By the time I was fifty miles down the road, I realized that I hadn’t brought a change of clothes. However, I was dressed for hunting mushrooms, not socializing, and I wasn’t about to spread my cold germs around anyway. It didn’t help that I might be driving right into worse weather with possible adverse affects on my already compromised health. But like I’ve said many times before, sneezes, bites and all of that are temporal; a good photo will last forever. Onward into the fog!

My first stop was the area around the Palace of Fine Arts which was reputed to have some aged wood chips-and stinkhorns-in the planted areas around the pond there. It did stop raining for a bit and I did manage to find a rare place to park. But by the time I figured out there was nothing to photograph, I also figured out that in my single-minded quest I hadn’t made a note of where my car was.

If it’s good to “sweat out” my cold, I was doing the right thing. I walked around several blocks until I happened upon the right one. At this point in the late afternoon, it was getting a little dark so it was time to get serious and head for Golden Gate Park.

Walking, driving, walking, driving. I wasn’t feeling very well but I didn’t care. In this big place there has to be some somewhere.

Aha! A dead one here, a dead one there. There’s a pattern here. The leftovers are all in the open – probably frostbitten and washed out. I’ll try a new strategy; crawling on my hands and knees under the bushes where they would be protected from the frost.

Starting where I found the last leftovers, under I go and just at the edge of the bush cover – bingo!; one up and open, one it’s way and several unhatched eggs. So I took a bunch of shots and gathered up a few eggs. As it was getting too dark to hunt now, I headed back dropping film in the lab, and putting heat on the wet feet.

And now, after several days, the eggs still haven’t hatched but the slides have arrived and I did get a shot that was more to my liking. You can see it at: http://www.kingdomoffungi.com/d.pages/m.2006.12/m.2006.12b.php

And the cold has receded as well, thank you. Merry Christmas, Savor the Solstice, Happy Holidays, and may the spores be
with you!