You may have noticed that I’ve written very few posts over the last couple of years, mostly because there’s been little for me to write about. The last two summers in this part of the world were scarily dry, which seems strange considering that I live in a temperate rainforest.
In the nine months of the year when rain is a constant part of our lives (I live on the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada) it’s obvious that we’re surrounded by rainforest: towering cedars, hemlock, and Douglas fir, glens crowded with sword ferns and salal, brilliant green mosses, and lichens draping themselves over branches or covering the soil surface everywhere you look.
But all it takes is a few summer weeks of no rain and unrelenting sunshine, and everything starts to feel crispy. Give it a few more weeks and the mosses become crunchy underfoot. The little brooks dry up, larger streams become smaller, and the small ponds become mud holes. The mushrooms know they’re not going to like such conditions, and so they stay put and go into retreat. It’s difficult not seeing these little friends of the forest.
Now it looks as if 2024 might go down as another fantastic, over-the-top mushroom season! We’ve had welcome rain throughout the summer, and already the August mushrooms have been popping out in such abundance that sometimes I wonder if I’m not being transported to that amazing year of twenty-aught-twelve, when I couldn’t keep up with the harvest of dye mushrooms.
This abundance has led to a renewed excitement about firing up the dyepots again. And it has also led to another development: Magic in the Dyepot, which has been out of print for too long, will soon be available again! Just in time for mushroom season in western/northern North America and for much of Europe. So if you were disappointed about missing out on a copy, stay tuned . . . it shouldn’t be much longer.
SHROOMWORKS 
So glad to hear from you again! We have had similar weather conditions here. The voles, moles have taken over and my beautiful lawns look like a dry battle field that has been mortared. My garden is sad. The few squash I have on the vines are very small. Many seeds did not germinate at all. A gardening friend near Tahoe had the same problem, though we used good quality seed. Of course there are no shrooms. Colleen near Susanvil
It’s good to be out there again! I fear the long, dry summers will be our normal, so I’m going to enjoy this mushroom season to the full.
Welcome back. Nice post. I esp love the photos. Can’t wait for the book. And, in something like this, it would be nice to be reminded of what part of the world you are writing from. Thank you,Mary Ann Stollwriting from North Idaho, USA
Thanks, Mary Ann, and that’s a good point – I’ve amended my post to show that I live on the West Coast of British Columbia. The book should be ready in a few weeks. Cheers, Ann
Wonderful! Are you going to Gran Canaria for IFFS2024?
Sadly, I won’t be going to the next IFFS. It breaks my heart to miss it, especially since so few Europeans were at the gathering in Port Townsend in 2022, but I have some health considerations, as well as a desire to limit long-distance air travel for reasons of the environment. I’m sure it will be another great event!
Huzzahhh!! You’re back with a fire for us all to warm by- those Taps are outta-sight, girl!
Thank you for your continued duty and vigor. I return here time and again as my natural pigment affair deepens and deepens.
All the love from our branch of the Fungus Kingdom over in (so-called) Libby, MT!
-Cass