#Mycelium Network: Night Cap

[guarshroom]

Time for another Night Cap! Gonna have another glass of Synthetik 2 and get my Breacher to level 20!

[yourlocal-lichen]

mutual power point night!! I think I may be the last one but here it is finally :) transcripts included.

tagging folks! @multi-lefaiye​ @nicola-writes​ @approximately20eggs​ @wherearetheplants​ @abouttogetshellshocked @astralrunic​ @cnnamonrolls​

Transcript: My Main WIP and by Extension: My Blorbos

I thought since a lot of you don’t know me very well this would be a good starter topic and plus idk if I’ve ever sat down and done this before

by Horatio yourlocal-lichen

note: all caps used as headers throughout

CHARACTERS

I’m gonna be honest with you all the characters are notably the most thought-out portion of this WIP. It’s been my longest-lasting WIP and as such I’m afraid to really commit to a plot or anything because I don’t want it to die.

Onwards!

In order: Bard, Tulle, Sylvia, Nox, and Ambrose

BARD

an Picrew of a white teen wearing an MCR shirt under a leather jacket. he has shaggy brown hair and bushy eyebrows. he has a big long nose and his ears are pierced. he is smiling rather large and maybe looks a little overwhelmed. the background is blue.

- he/him - bisexuwhale polyam - autistic - loud voice unless he’s checking in, emotional support but never admits that anything is wrong - sends postcards to his friends - kind of overwhelming in group situations - likes almost all rock and indie pop music and has a classic rock hyperfixation - falls in love just a little more a little bit every day with someone new

TULLE

a Picrew of a white teen with kind of short blonde hair. she is wearing a big green bomber jacket over a yellow tshirt. she is smiling and wearing big round sunglasses. the background is cream.

- she/they - sapphic demisexual - audhd, psychotic, and more - nonspeaking and very opinionated - fat but uhh you know picrew - super popular on imaginary tumblr - super into flight and engineering and had a blimp hyperfixation and now makes planes - encyclopedic knowledge of plane and boat design - also super into 19-20th century american literature - likes wwii movies & rhythm games

SYLVIA

a Picrew of a Latina teen. she has long black hair, a colorful flowery dress, and a dark green jacket. she is wearing daisy earrings and has a neutral expression. the background is salmon colored.

- she/ey - pan ace transfemme - ocd, autistic, and more - the picrew i used didnt have many options for her clothing so oop - guatemalan (or similar idk this is a fictional world) - knows a lot about plants, fungi, lichen, and algae, specifically about mycelium networks and mycorrhizae - the love of my life - codes games mostly about plants and other little guys

NOX

a Picrew of a Korean-American teen. they have long black hair mostly up in a bun, a black turtleneck, and a black jacket with constellation patches on it. they are wearing moon and star earrings. they have a curious expression. the background is taupe.

- they/it - queer - audhd, dyslexic - bugs and mythology, especially about patterns in mythology across the world - that one kid that sits in the back of class and draws - has a lot of bugs housed safely in enclosures and takes them out often to draw with - kind of quiet but when the situation calls for it will ramble to literally anyone on very serious philosophical topics but using a bunch of slang

AMBROSE

a Picrew of a white teen with long brown hair. he is large round classes and a neutral-satisfied espression. he is wearing a black buttondown with suspenders over a yellow turtleneck. he has flowers behind his ear and as part of his background. the rest of the background is yellow-green.

- he/him - aro acespec - adhd, psychotic, depression, and more - on and off cane and wheelchair user, plus that tboy swag - oldest of the group, a leader of sorts if there is any at all - that was the best I could do for his outfit lol this is the first picrew of him I’ve ever made and it’s stuck - interested in most things, has a pretty good understanding of most STEM fields, literature, and polysci - connects with folks intellectually

THEMES

This whole WIP is kind of an amalgamation of my own character development over the last year or two, so it’s a lot about connection and how we’re all very similar in a lot of ways and all deserving of love. I may have another character on the way actually who’s kind of this theme personified as a literary device you know, but idk much about them yet so I didn’t include them.

WHAT NOW?

Good question!! I have no clue, I hardly even have a setting for them except I know that Sylvia has a greenhouse and Nox may or may not have the woods. I might split that into a different WIP. I guess they’ll just live in my head until I either write them down or they leave!

YOU HAVE ANOTHER WIP?

yes I do! sort of. I’ve got a plot (ish) and themes and kind of a character or two but they are not at all fleshed out enough to do anything with. it’s about a person who lives alone in the middle of nowhere who seeks connection via crow-courier! yeah it’s pretty okay

-

yeah so that was pretty cool we should do it again sometime. enjoy! and I hope to get to know all of you better in the coming years :>

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 10, 8th of April, 2024 Research Fairy Rings

Fairy Rings (from top to bottom: daisy ring, crocus ring, mushroom ring, toadstool ring, moss rings, mushroom ring and fairy tree).

From the text: Do you dare enter a fairy ring? The mythical mushroom portals of the supernatural by Liz Leafloor, 2018…

For thousands of years, the sudden appearance of a ring of mushrooms was a sure sign of otherworldly presences. These rings would seemingly appear overnight, or travel from one location to another, with no clear rhyme or reason. Warnings of the dark forces that must create these abnormalities were passed down between generations, and the folklore of fairy rings was established.

In present day the fungi that causes the natural phenomenon is well understood.  Mycelium is a spreading fungus which grows in fertile, damp environments. In good conditions, the spores will develop into mushrooms (the most well-known being the edible Scotch bonnet, or fairy ring champignon). The mushrooms reach out of the ground and create an easily visible ring. Underground, the mycelium networks out under the grass, moving outward from the center, and feeding upon organic matter and decomposing as it travels. The dead mycelium forms a thick, water-repellant mat that starves the grass roots of nutrients and moisture. Eventually the land within the ring withers and dies from starvation, but the leading edge of the ring remains lush and green, as the feeding/dying and decomposing mycelium releases fertilizers. This cycle can continue for centuries, and the ring grows, shrinks, and moves around the countryside, delighting some people and disturbing others.

Do NOT Step Into the Ring

It is generally felt that fairy circles are to be avoided as dangerous places as they’re associated with malevolent beings.If you dare to enter a ring, many myths warn you will die young. You also become invisible to the mortal world, unable to escape the ring, or you are transported instantly to the fairy realm. You might also lose an eye for your foolishness. Either way, you will be forced to dance around the ring until you die of exhaustion or madness.

Left: The Fairy Ring; the Enchanted Piper (c.1880), Right: "Plucked from the Fairy Circle" A man saves his friend from the grip of a fairy ring.

In Scotland, it was believed the fairies sit on the mushrooms and use them as tables for their fêtes. In Wales, the story goes that the mushrooms were picked by the fairy folk and used as parasols or umbrellas. Even now in Wales it’s said the rings signify an underground fairy village. Welsh folklore also considers the rings as locations of fertility and fortune, and claim that crops grown around them and livestock feeding nearby will flourish. In England, Scandinavian and many other traditional European beliefs the rings were caused by fairies or elves dancing. Such events were associated especially with moonlit nights, and the sudden appearance of the rings in the morning were evidence of a dance the evening before.

From the text: The Mysterious Languages of the Tylwyth Teg by Prophet Johns, "Fairy Rings"...

The circles in the grass of green fields, which are commonly called fairy rings, are numerous in Wales, and it is deemed just as well to keep out of them, even in our day. The peasantry no longer believe that the fairies can be seen dancing there, nor that the cap of invisibility will fall on the head of one who enters the circle; but they do believe that the fairies, in a time not long gone, made these circles with the tread of their tripping feet, and that some misfortune will probably befall any person intruding upon this forbidden ground. With regard to the fairy rings, 'The fairies dance in circles in dry places; and saith that the walk of evil spirits is in dry places.' They favour the oak-tree, and the female oak especially, partly because of its more wide-spreading branches and deeper shade, partly because of the 'superstitious use made of it beyond other trees in the days of the Druids. Formerly, it was dangerous to cut down a female oak in a fair dry place. 'Some were said to lose their lives by it, by a strange aching pain which admitted of no remedy, as one of my ancestors did; but now that men have more knowledge and faith, this effect follows not.' 

The mysterious language used by fairies recalls again the medieval story of Elidurus. The example of fairy words there given by Giraldus is thought by the learned rector of Llanarmon [Rev. Peter Roberts, 'Cambrian Popular Antiquities,' 195. (1815)] to be 'a mixture of Irish and Welsh.

access here: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/wfl/wfl08.htm

Fairy Ring, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, 1922

Left: Dancing with the Fairy Folk, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, 1923

Right: Kay Sitting on Moss in a Fairy Ring by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, 1922

Australian Artist and Illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite lived and died in Carlon, Melbourne, Victoria.

Outhwaite worked very near where I lived in Australia as a child and we read many if her stories with her illustrations growing up. And of course wandered into many faery rings!

[wickedsrest-rp]

NAME: Massive, Mobile Mushroom 

ALSO KNOWN AS: MMM

RARITY: ★★★★☆

THREAT LEVEL: ★★★☆☆ | While they can leave large areas of dead forest and critters in their wake, their spores don’t travel far and they themselves aren’t a physical threat.

HABITAT: Found only in heavily forested areas. These mushrooms can’t seem to propagate in towns or cities, which has led to them becoming increasingly rare. 

DESCRIPTION: Many mushroom species are known for their impressive network of mycelium which far outsize their above ground appearance. Massive, mobile mushrooms (MMMs) are the reverse: they have a relatively small root system but a massive stem and cap. They can grow so tall they exceed the height of trees within the same forest, poking out above them. While they come in many colors, their caps are usually covered in spiny growths making them unpleasant to the touch. MMMs wouldn’t be so problematic if they were just big mushrooms, though – they drag themselves along the ground, albeit slowly, feeding on plants and animals, consuming everything in their path and leaving a trail of destruction behind them. 

The mushroom is also capable of releasing toxic spores from its cap. While these spores are an irritant on their own, they become deadly when mixed with water, and will kill other organisms. The MMM will then rapidly decompose any remains it leaves nearby, absorbing them as energy. MMMs will often bide their time during dry weather, building up their spores, only to release them the next time it rains. Due to the increasing rarity of MMMs, some in town believe the appearance of one in the woods is a blessing from Tendrilla.

ABILITIES: The spores of the massive, mobile mushroom have a variety of effects on other organisms, depending on length and type of exposure. On less humid days, direct contact with the spores may only cause a rash and temporary trouble breathing, or possibly some more supernatural symptoms of exposure. If it’s humid or raining, the spores are lethal when inhaled. Due to their size, a number of smaller organisms have adapted to living inside of the gills of the MMM. These critters pose an additional risk to anyone nearby – or they may be harmless. There are some reports of bioluminescent moths and rodents that whip their punishingly long tails out at people who walk underneath the mushroom.

WEAKNESS: Aside from any territorial creatures that live within, the mushroom is not going to pose any kind of unexpected threat to those who want to kill it. It’s huge with a thick stem, so it will take a great deal of force to knock it over, necessitating chainsaws and other heavy duty tools. Care should be taken to avoid spores that shake out when it falls. MMMs only move at night, and can’t move across rocky terrain. The undead are immune to their spores. While they are mobile like their name implies, they move pretty slowly, covering up to a quarter of a mile per day.

[smallfrost]

Big fan of the graveyard scene here also. I wonder though, why does a necro need to learn how to make a deathcap out of a recently deceased corpse? How is that translatable to the battlefield?

Oh oh interesting. I never thought about that. My initial interpretation was that a Death Cap is produced out of respect for the dead. Necros know that nothing ever really dies; that there is a powerful resonant life force left after death. Therefore, I see the Death Cap as a ceremonial sort of deal to help with the recycling of the resonant energy from the deceased. 

Because if Necros are more connected to the dead, it’s not just about harnessing the power of the dead. They understand that life becomes death becomes life again so spiritually, they are more inclined to help guide the cycle onward. The Death Cap is out of respect for the cycle.

However, how it would come into combat got me thinking. In one of his early interviews Eliot talks about the Necro unit and says Necros are “employing the dead to surveil and make bombs”. In terms of surveillance, I would assume this is through listening or seeing through the dead, not by reanimating them. One possibility could be that they link through mycelium networks to access these bodies? Almost as though connecting through the Underworld/Otherworld.

But BOMBS!? How do they do that??? Now, it very well could be that the Death Cap is supposed to be ceremonial as I can see is Necros combing the battle field afterwards and performing this “ceremony” out of respect for the fallen so they could then clear the bodies after recycling the life force that would be left behind. But one crazy idea could be that calling up the mushrooms from the Underworld is how they create these “bombs” by re-purposing that resonant life force instead. Because we see that the Death Cap bursts and releases spores into the air, we know that they are “charged” with power. 

Further, Death Caps are poisonous. It’s somewhat shocking that Scylla just casually consumes some of these spores. Maybe they are less poisonous to witches or Necros in general, or perhaps because it is such a small animal producing a small Death Cap that the spores are less potent. So, what would a Death Cap for a human look like? How big would it be? Could it be that the Necros are channeling hundreds of Death Caps into corpses of the recently deceased to create gas bombs by harnessing the resonant life force? 

Personally, I think Necros have too much respect for the balance of magic and maintaining the circle of life, but it very well could be that they have been forced to hijack this type of work for military purposes or as a sort of last resort. Perhaps it is a combination of both ceremonial and combative, or at least they would try to justify it as such. I really hope we see more Necro work soon because they are my favs.

Shout out to @numberfiveisalive, @theycallmestephlee, and @useless-les-bien for their late night Necro discussions over at MFS Research Institute that helped with this. 

[treeyo]

It was an itinerant permaculture teaching and project installation company, a brand identified with being on the move.  I made the conscious choice to not go on with this lifestyle for many reasons. Rather rooting into community and long term intensive site development is the goal.  This holistic vision has kept me put in Northern Kentucky since 2017 September other than a working holiday this past fall/ winter to my familiar Iberian roots.

Arvid scything at Sekier, Slovakia for hay storage

Canal in Argentinian drylands

Papaya circle planting, Dominican Republic, 2012

Winter in Southern Spain

Josse and myself doing free consulting/ design work, Southern Portugal, 2017

Malaysian Aquaculture

Teaching

What once was my staple, teaching, has now dwindled down consciously and due to lack of interest in my local market for current offerings.  I tried to run a weekend PDC this again winter but that didn’t work here in the Cincinnati tristate region.  I did get to teach here at the lake on the topics of food forest and forestry in the Year Long PDC run by Braden Truth and the Cincinnati Permaculture Institute.  It really is a

Treasure Lake Zone 3 Planting with Year Long PDC group

passion of mine to teach and always nice to show off the work you have been doing for nearly two decades in the forest (more on that below). It was a great group and we did get some work done in a zone 3 area I have been developing including last falls earthworks.  The space has been evolving since 2014 and will take its next evolution in the upcoming day class with Abby Artemisia in our event called Planting Abundance on May 18th.  Unique offerings like this is what I will try as I work my way into other avenues of teaching, rather than the globetrotting PDC circuit.

https://treeyopermaculture.com/permaculture-design-courses-pdc/herbal-walk-and-permaculture-planting-with-abby-and-doug/

Abby did interview me for a podcast as well and I got to talk about my passion of Paw Paw’s.

https://soundcloud.com/wander-forage-wildcraft/wfw-ep-4-meet-doug-crouch

I will also be offering workshops at the Whippoorwill Festival in July in Kentucky and rumor is I might be starting to teach at University of Cincinnati’s horticulture department for Permaculture.

Treasure Lake

The fall last year, 2018, was brutal with the continued heat and non stop event planning and all the work and maintenance that comes with that.  I then left for Europe as soon as we closed for the season and finally took a breath to work on another passion; writing.  After spending three months in Iberia I cracked on with my beloved winter forestry work that I among calling Active Forest Management and launching a new movement around that.  The cutting of non natives and natives to make way for the understory paw paw and spicebush, the continuing to plug up streams with rock dams and woody debris, small and large diameter, and felling trees for mushroom innoculation.  This year I worked with one of my closest neighbors who has a shining example of 1/2 acre permaculture, Daniel Biedenbender, on the mushroom inoculation.  We removed quite a few box elders in the aforementioned zone 3 space that we are developing. The logs this time are at his fathers house down the road by a few miles as resources are starting to not be so boundary centric in the building of community here in Petersburg, KY. This winter work is great prep for getting the physical body back in shape for the looming busyness of spring. Much of that spring time has been devoted to nursery work again with the Cincinnati Permaculture Insititues Growing Value Nursery having a spillover/ secondary location here at the lake.  It’s fun work, but tough on the body indeed and honestly I am glad it has just a few more hours of work to be done to resettled for the season. Alongside of that I have been sprouting hundreds of Paw Paw seed from selected fruits from last years harvest.  Fun stuff as I put together elements of my own nursery as well.

Cincinnati Permaculture Institute Nursery at Treasure Lake, almost finished

Community sharing, bag of Morelsfor sharing Wine Caps

Hauling plants to Growing Value Nursery

Paw Paw seeds in Pots

invasive after cutting

invasive before cutting

One rock dams, expanded and built up this winter

Sprouted Paw Paw seeds, these ones were actually planted out directly the field

non native bush honeysuckle cut

Spicebush in flower

Speaking of mushrooms, our King Stropharia beds that were inoculated in May and June of 2018 came thumping along with honestly more mushrooms than we could handle (and now a second flush is happening).  Emphatically by the bag full we have been harvesting them! I had never grown them before and will be better prepared for selling next flush.  For now we have all been eating lots of mushrooms around here since again the morel season hasn’t been great and these mushrooms keep us satisfied.  Part of those beds are also part of a western hedgerow on the edge of Annie Woods Dark Wood Farm market garden.  All the plants are super thriving which is a great sign to know that these mushrooms can be cultivated along with perennials like fruit trees, berrybushes, and perennial veg.  I definitely did have to pull the wood chips and fall leaves away from the trunks of the plants as the wine cap mycelium is indeed very aggressive. I have planted in more currants, Jostaberry, and gooseberry to finish filling out the space.

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Western Hedgerow

Wine Cap Mushrooms

Wine cap harvest

Wine Cap Mushrooms, ready tone cooked

Wince cap cut in half

Wine caps in grow bed, abundance

The other hedgerow, on the north end of the market garden, originally planted in fall 2017, continues to expand.  Everything is looking great, even the pear I had to whack back just above the graft after the deer rub got it as there was a miscommunicationabotu fencing when I left to Europe in the fall.  oops.  These nuclei are great to see displaying the small scale intensive principle for sure. And being full on growth during this warm and wet spring it is chop and drop time of course as well. Furthermore, I am now dropping in a few more layers of the food forests hedgerow as I developed the anchors and guild herbaceous plants and now adding more fruiting bushes like currants, Aronia, and more.  I have also expanded both east and west with more fruit tree nuclei, Japanese plum and Asian Pear, which meets up against a back stop that my grandfather had built for his dreams of having a softball diamond here.  It had become junk pile over the years but some hard work has it ready for vines, I do believe hardy kiwi it is. Maybe Akebia, decision has to be made today, ha. Oh and some hoops too!

South Hedgerow

Blueberry guild after chop and drop

Blueberry guild before chop and drop

Sheet mulch fro Asian Pears

Guilding with comfrey

Individual Tree planting terrace

Shiro Plum addition

Asian Pear additions

chop and drop in hedgerow with mower and bag

Nucleus planting, guild and berry bushes and nitrogen fixers

The businesses of Treasure Lake have also been a backdrop ongoing conversation and evolution with the owners, my father and my two aunties.  So we decided to shut the pay fishing lake, campground, and the bar other than our Tuesday Night Ping Pong and Friday night Open Jam (now turning into Sunday afternoon instead of Friday), which are quite communal events.  The culture of camping and the pay lake and the event production of music shows honestly had become toxic with people simply over doing it and not respecting the land (not everyone but a few rotten apples do spoil the bunch).  Unfortunately people live in excess, I once was there and am no saint, although quite sober these days.  Anyway this allows me to have more time and space to dedicate to projects here on the land and elsewhere and build community further.

Pong jam

Community

The biggest journey of living in this economically depressed rural area during tough times in the states other than for the wealthy is indeed building community. There is a small group of us, but it is expanding as the roots are put down further.  Running a bar at the lake does generate tips and rather than take it all for myself, i simply use it as a tree planting fund.  So both the local Biedenbender homesteads, Daniel and Colleen and Josh and Maddy, have received big donations of plants to make their homesteads more robust and our community more resilient.  Our network extends beyond this but these are the folks I work with the most in my local area. I also am working with my longtime event production co manager, Bryan Schaffer and we will soon get his pear trees in the ground that were also donated through the tips for tree planting program. Furthermore, I of course work with Annie Woods and her Dark Wood Farm market garden that is still on the land as well.  There are still next steps and people are constantly asking about moving to this area since it is only 30 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport, our tri-cities on the river. Also I continue to make my trips two hours south to continue building community with the Berea crews it is my respite.

Backyard Permaculture elements at Daniel and Colleens, vine trellis, pathways, sweat lodge

Swim spot and Maddy and Josh’s

Mushroom log inoculation

Front yard terraces at Daniel and Colleens, to the left food forest

Rabbits raised by Colleen

Salamander at Jo and Mike’s in Berea, KY

The goats at Maddy and Josh’s

Lesourdsville

Another exciting opportunity I am working on is turning a normal park design into a permaculture landscape.  More on that one in the next blog as we are moving from vision and assessment phase into the conceptual design in this moment.

Lesourdsville in Monroe, Ohio, becoming anew park

There is a lot going onion life these days and big next steps are occurring in rooting, even if they are tiny.  Hint that was foreshadowing.

Treeyo Project Update:  Evolving through Rooting It was an itinerant permaculture teaching and project installation company, a brand identified with being on the move.