From the mossy crevices of trees once blackened by lightening strikes and the fallen branches wrenched off violently by storms grows a natural phenomenon: shelf fungi or fairy benches. Strange yet concentrically flowing forms adorn the affected wood. A dusty, downy veil of white spores shrouds the fungi emerging from the fallen branches and other decaying pieces of wood scattered here and there. Fairy benches give the dead trees new function. In my minds eye I can see the invisible forest residents coming out after sunset, secret and mysterious. Fairies, elves and other fairytale creatures, that for a lack of fantasy I can’t think of at the moment, using the toadstools in all manner of ways; as protection from rain, to crawl on top to sunbathe and yes maybe even to have a romp on together if it suits them. A living work of art in the forest that can’t help but evoke fantasy. I am tired though, my imagination dulled by fatigue and I am reminded once again how vast the forest is and how my energy is limited. I look pensively at the largest fairy bench that I can see and I am made acutely aware of the size of my bottom. That will never fit. A fallen tree invites me to sit on its fungus-free trunk; happy that it still has a use.
