Wednesday 7 September 2011

Feeling euphoric

I looked under this toadstool to see if  there was a gnome hiding - there wasn't. Maybe because this wasn't in the garden it was out of bounds to a garden gnome? I read that reindeer in northern Europe are drawn to the fly argaric's euphoric effects. Well I didn't see a reindeer either, but I did see this little slug chomping its way round the edge of an enormous plate of dinner. I couldn't tell if he was euphoric or just hungry - it's difficult to know with a slug
I did notice he couldn't chew in a straight line though....
I was euphoric earlier in the week  to discover this tiny absolutely minuscule miniature clump of eyebright growing in our grass. The flowers are smaller than my little finger nail, and so pretty and so delicate and perfectly formed.
 Eyebright is part of the figwort family, just as these monkey flowers are. Monkey flowers grow at random all over the garden. It should be very nice if their eyebright cousins were to follow their example.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How beautiful! You are an excellent photographer. I love the eyebright. And is the bottom photo wild mimulus?

Strangely, our circle of fly agaric has already come and gone here in Aberdeen. The first one popped up about three weeks ago I think, and there's no sign now they were ever there.

ADRIAN said...

Beautiful images........where do slugs put all they eat.......voracious wee things.

Lucille said...

So that's what it looks like. I use an eyebright eye lotion. The other flower looks almost tropical.

Dan said...

Yes, what would a euphoric slug behave like, I wonder? I love your pictures of the eyebright and monkey flower. We had a a monkey flower appear from nowhere in our pond this year. I assume it's a water variety, though the flowers look exactly the same as the ones you've shown here.
Dan
-x-

Linda said...

A lovely series of close-ups. Those tiny tooth marks!

ravensdotter said...

I am following you from the Pacific Northwest, and love your reports on the seas, since we spend a lot of time on our local waters. Also enjoy seeing the plants in your world. We have the same agaracus and mimulus and eyebright here. Fun to see!

S. Etole said...

What a delightful garden you have. Those little red toadstools are so fun.

old_black said...

Brilliant photographs of the toadstool! And not just the quality of the pictures, but having the imagination to think of looking underneath!!

I'm not big on the world of fungus, but I'm sure we have nothing like those here in Sydney, Australia.

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