sus

Well-known member
I love ya Rich but re: older groves, that's the clonal colony bit in the post immediately after the one ya quoted. I believe that Grove you reference is Pando, the quaking aspen colony

I like that King Clone is a faerie ring. @Mr. Tea you ever seen a proper faerie ring on your collecting trips?

I'm listening to some nice woodland sounds as I type up this chapter about trees I been reading for

 

sus

Well-known member
I've heard that about lobsters, that they don't die of old age and just get bigger and bigger until something kills them. Always wondered whether there's some colossal lobster somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
I love ya Rich but re: older groves, that's the clonal colony bit in the post immediately after the one ya quoted. I believe that Grove you reference is Pando, the quaking aspen colony
Oh did you write a post on that and I missed it? Soz. I will read back now.
 

sus

Well-known member
From the family tree to the tree of knowledge, from the tree of life to the tree of memory, forests have provided an indispensable resource of symbolization in the cultural evolution of humankind.

 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Oh did you write a post on that and I missed it? Soz. I will read back now.
Oh yeah, dunno how I missed that one.
I find it amusing somehow that we name these real trees after Methuselah, the mythical human who lived longer than anyone in history, and yet their reality far outstrips our imaginations as Methusaleh didn't even crack the thousand year mark. Compared to some of these ancient beauties he was a mere stripling.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I like that King Clone is a faerie ring. @Mr. Tea you ever seen a proper faerie ring on your collecting trips?
Are you kidding? They're really common. You can often see them on grassy areas of any sorts - large lawns, sports fields, whatever - shown up by rings or arcs of darker grass that are caused by the fungus mutually supporting the grass roots at those points with a higher than usual nutrient supply. The grass immediately inside the darker ring tends to be pale and withered, because after the phase of lush, enhanced growth, the soil is depleted of nutrients. You can see these rings all year round, while the mushrooms themselves may appear for only a few weeks in the year.

Some of them are estimated (from their size and the known growth rate) to be hundreds of years old.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Have you guys seen A Field In England?
I liked it, and I enjoyed the invocation of the fairy ring as a portal to the Other World that you get in folklore - but I think mentioning Ben Wheatley, or anything by him, is second in occult power only to mentioning Robert McFarlane for summoning @luka from the aether for a mad drunken rant about how he's the most awful living human on the planet.

Or maybe third, considering Keir Starmer.
 

sus

Well-known member
Are you kidding? They're really common. You can often see them on grassy areas of any sorts - large lawns, sports fields, whatever - shown up by rings or arcs of darker grass that are caused by the fungus mutually supporting the grass roots at those points with a higher than usual nutrient supply. The grass immediately inside the darker ring tends to be pale and withered, because after the phase of lush, enhanced growth, the soil is depleted of nutrients. You can see these rings all year round, while the mushrooms themselves may appear for only a few weeks in the year.

Some of them are estimated (from their size and the known growth rate) to be hundreds of years old.
Oh I had no idea, I've never seen a faerie ring! That's very wild, I didn't realize fungus could last that long.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Oh I had no idea, I've never seen a faerie ring! That's very wild, I didn't realize fungus could last that long.
Ha, well the 700-year-old fairy ring is a whippersnapper in the scheme of things. There are honey fungus colonies that extend for multiple square miles, are estimated to weigh tens of thousands of tons, and are at least 2,000 but possibly up to 8,000 years old.
 
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WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Heard of The Battle of the Trees? It's a riddle of sorts

I HAVE been in a multitude of shapes,
Before I assumed a consistent form.
I have been a sword, narrow, variegated,
I will believe when it is apparent.
I have been a tear in the air,
I have been the dullest of stars.
I have been a word among letters,
I have been a book in the origin.
I have been the light of lanterns,
A year and a half.
I have been a continuing bridge,
Over three score Abers.
I have been a course, I have been an eagle.
I have been a coracle in the seas:
I have been compliant in the banquet.
I have been a drop in a shower;
I have been a sword in the grasp of the hand
I have been a shield in battle.
I have been a string in a harp,
Disguised for nine years.
in water, in foam.
I have been sponge in the fire,
I have been wood in the covert.
I am not he who will not sing of
A combat though small,
The conflict in the battle of Godeu of sprigs.
Against the Guledig of Prydain,
There passed central horses,
Fleets full of riches.
There passed an animal with wide jaws,
On it there were a hundred heads.
And a battle was contested
Under the root of his tongue;
And another battle there is
In his occiput.4
A black sprawling toad,
With a hundred claws on it.
A snake speckled, crested.
A hundred souls through sin
Shall be tormented in its flesh
I have been in Caer Vevenir5
Thither hastened grass and trees
Minstrels were singing
Warrior-bands were wondering
At the exaltation of the Brython,
That Gwydyon6 affected.
There was a calling on the Creator,
Upon Christ for causes,
Until when the Eternal
Should deliver those whom he had made.
The Lord answered them,
Through language and elements:
Take the forms of time prinncipal trees,
Arranging yourselves in battle array,
And restraining the public.
Inexperienced in battle hand to hand.
When the trees were enchanted,
In the expectation of not being trees,
The trees uttered their voices
From strings of harmony,
The disputes ceased.
Let us cut short heavy days,
A female restrained the din.
She came forth altogether lovely.
The head of the line, the head was a female.
The advantage of a sleepless cow
Would not make us give way.
The blood of men up to our thighs,
The greatest of importunate mental exertions
Sported in the world.
And one has ended
From considering the deluge,
And Christ crucified
And the day of judgement near at hand
The alder trees, the head of the line,
Formed the van.
The willows and quicken trees
Came late to the army.
Plum-trees, that are scarce,
Unlonged for of men
The elaborate medlar-trees
Tue objects of contention.
The prickly rose-bushes,
Against a host, of giants,
The raspberry brake did
What is better failed
For the security of life.
Privet and woodbine
And ivy on its front,
Like furze to the combat
The cherry-tree was provoked.
The birch, notwithstanding his high mind,
Was late before he was arrayed.
Not because of his cowardice,
But on account of his greatness.
The laburnuin held in mind,
That your wild nature was foreign.
Pine-trees in the porch,
The chair of disputation,
By me greatly exalted,
In the presence of kings
The elm with his retinue,
Did not go aside a foot
He would fight with the centre,
And the flanks, and the rear.
Hazel-trees, it was judged,
That ample was thy mental exertion
The privet, happy his lot,
The bull of battle, the lord of the world
Morawg and Morydd7
Were made prosperous in pines.
Holly, it was tinted with green,
He was the hero.
The hawthorn, surrounded by prickles,
With pain at his hand.
The aspen-wood has been topped,
It was topped in battle.
The fern that was plundered
The broom, in the van of the army, in the trenches he was hurt.
The gorse did not do well,
Notwithstanding let it overspread.
The heath was victorious, keeping off on all sides.
The common people were charmed,
During time proceeding of the men.
The oak, quickly moving,
Before him, tremble heaven and earth.
A valiant door-keeper against an enenly,
his name is considered.
The blue-bells combined,
And caused a consternation.
In rejecting, were rejected,
Others, that were perforated.
Pear-trees, the best intruders
In time conflict of the plain.
A very wrathful wood,
The chestnut is bashful,
The opponent of happiness,
The jet has become black,
The mountain has become crooked,
The woods have become a kiln,
Existing formerly in the great seas
Since was heard the shout:--
The tops of the birch covered us with leaves,
And transformed us, and changed our faded state.
The branches of the oak have ensnared us
From the Gwarchan of Maelderw.8
Laughing on the side of the rock,
The lord is not of an ardent nature.
Not of mother and father,
When I was made,
Did my Creator create me.9
Of nine-formed faculties,
Of the fruit of fruits,
Of the fruit of the primordial God,
Of primroses and blossoms of time hill,
Of the flowers of trees and shrubs.
Of earth, of an earthly course,
When I was formed.
Of the flower of nettles,
Of the water of the ninth wave.
I was enchanted by Math,10
Before I became immortal,
I was enchanted by Gwydyon
The great purifier of the Brython,
Of Eurwys, of Euron,
Of Euron, of Modron.
Of five battalions of scientific ones.
Teachers, children of Math.
When the removal occurred,
I was enchanted by the Guledig.
When he was half-burnt,
I was enchanted by the sage
Of sages, in the primitive world.
When I had a being;
When the host of the world was in dignity,
The bard was accustomed to benefits.
To the song of praise I am inclined, which the tongue recites.
I played in the twilight,
I slept in purple;
I was truly in the enchantment
With Dylan, the son of the wave.
In the circumference, in the middle,
Between the knees of kings,
Scattering spears not keen,
From heaven when came,
To the great deep, floods,
In the battle there will be
Four score hundreds,
That will divide according to their will.
They are neither older nor younger,
Than myself in their divisions.
A wonder, Canhwr are born, every one of nine hundred.
He was with me also,
With my sword spotted with blood.
honour was allotted to me
By the Lord, and protection (was) where he was.
If I come to where the boar was killed,
He will compose, he will decompose,
He will form languages.
The strong-handed gleamer, his name,
With a gleam he rules his numbers.
They would spread out. in a flame,
When I shall go on high.
I have been a speckled snake on the hill,
I have been a viper in the Llyn.
I have been a bill-hook crooked that cuts,
I have been a ferocious spear
With my chasuble and bowl
I will prophesy not badly,
Four score smokes
On every one what will bring.
Five battalions of arms
Will be caught by my knife.
Six steeds of yellow hue
A hundred times better is
My cream-coloured steed,
Swift as the sea-mew
Which will not pass
Between the sea and the shore.
Am I not pre-eminent in the field of blood?
Over it are a hundred chieftains.
Crimson (is) the gem of my belt,
Gold my shield border.
There has not been born, in the gap,
That has been visiting me,
Except Goronwy,
From the dales of Edrywy.
Long white my fingers,
It is long since I have been a herdsman.
I travelled in the earth,
Before I was a proficient in learning.
I travelled, I made a circuit,
I slept in a hundred islands
A hundred Caers I have dwelt in.
Ye intelligent Druids,
Declare to Arthur,
What is there more early
Than I that they sing of.
And one is come
From considering the deluge,
And Christ crucified,
And the day of future doom.
A golden gem in a golden jewel.
I am splendid
And shall be wanton
From the oppression of the metal-workers.


R Graves went deep

 
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sus

Well-known member
Esd3ObdUcAA5124

Apparently in a lot of ancient myths there is this blurring/conceptual blending between fighting demigods and cutting down trees—see Gilgamesh slaying Humbaba
 

catalog

Well-known member
Great shot... but you got snow now?
Yeah, this is a bit away (like 30 mins drive) from me and is quite high up but the snow came down suddenly very quick and we got the fear a bit after having a bad weather experience a while ago.

But weirdly, the weather then totally changed again, all the snow melted real quick and by the time we were nearly home it was like spring. Like we had literally walked through seasons.
 
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catalog

Well-known member
I've heard that about lobsters, that they don't die of old age and just get bigger and bigger until something kills them. Always wondered whether there's some colossal lobster somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
Also they've got blue blood!!
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah, this is a bit away (like 30 mins drive) from me and is quite high up but the snow came down suddenly very quick and we got the fear a bit after having a bad weather experience a while ago.

But weirdly, the weather then totally changed again, all the snow melted real quick and by the time we were nearly home it was like spring. Like we had literally walked through seasons.
Feeling quite warm here today - sixteen degrees I think - hopefully the start of spring, fingers crossed.
 
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