On a walk round a forest garden on the Dartington Estate, Devon (November 2008). The guide paused for the groups to catch up – leant down and picked up a log with which he hit the end of another fallen log, hard – several times. Some asked, ‘what are you doing?’ he explained
– the rotting log has mushroom spores planted in it – had the branch fallen off the tree onto the ground, the spores would have ‘sensed the shock’, and begin to germinate depending on the surrounding conditions. Mushrooms spores spread by wind, settle on trees – and it is when the branch they are on falls off and hits the ground that they ‘know’ they can now germinate and possible flourish in the rotting wood on the ground…
– ‘the shock leads to the fruiting….’
Perhaps intimacy can have a similar effect – in ways which are less than traumatic, intimate encounters can ‘shock me into fruiting’.
Slingshot