Mystical and magical Amanita mushrooms
growing currently at the family farm in Pleasant Valley, Maryland, where the SRN just spent a mystical and magical week.
Pictured at right is an 1851 rendering of a Druid-sort, a discalced woodland creature, stepping past a cluster of these delirium-producing fungal species. Perhaps he was searching for some magic, but he appears to have missed these vision-giving specimens. Still, the artist has his subject's sandal pointing like an arrow at the ephemeral beings.
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The photo above at Means Rest farm was nearly the first thing we saw on alighting from the Suburban transport. An Omen of a spiritual week to come?
Our closer examination disclosed that something (a raccoon? a faerie?) had taken a big chomp out of the central growth in the image. (Click on image to see.) Beaten-down grass in the vicinity the mushroom, we conjectured, suggested that the ingestor had lain in a glazed stupor after the repast was had.
Such, generally, is the magic of Means Rest. The culinary reigns supreme. The M. Resters are not, however, users of this specific food. There is too much other stuff to eat.
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Coming editions of the raccoonery will feature other impressions of this hallowed ground that the editor has been visiting for 26 years. This time he arrived by air, foregoing the usual visit overnight at the historic National Road suspension bridge, the still-standing (and used) un-columned span over the Ohio River in Wheeling WVA.
Stay tuned.
