Fly Agarics
There are Fly Agarics in abundance on Bovey Heath at the moment.
![Amanita muscaria - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Amanita-muscaria-The-Hall-of-Einar-3298-725x725.jpg)
It’s tricky to find one which hasn’t been partially eaten by slugs or kicked over by humans. Here they are last year in an attractive group:
Reindeer love them and get high after eating them. It can give them a sudden ‘rush’ and make them jump very high. Shamen from Siberia used them in mid-winter festivals (after drying them in socks hung over the fire). They used to wear red and white in honour of the fungus. It’s starting to sound a lot like our Christmas traditions, isn’t it? Theirs, however, was the gift of knowledge, rather than the gift of £250 of Chinese electronics.
![Fly Agaric - Bovey Heath - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Bovey-Heath-The-Hall-of-Einar-4529-725x544.jpg)
Here they are in the 19th Century from the Atlas des champignons comestibles et vénéneux by Dufour:
They are endlessly fascinating.
![Amanita muscaria - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Fungi-The-Hall-of-Einar-3131-725x483.jpg)
I look forward to them every year, just like Christmas.