It has been raining so often that mushrooms are sprouting everywhere. Last year there were not this many mushrooms and it was dry as hell. Everything died, even the grass, and you know how hardy they are. Somehow rains here are different here. They do not pour, as in, there is not enough rain to shampoo and wash your hair in. And notice how in those horror movies the sunny skies suddenly grow dark as night and the wind blows the trees sideways? I had thought those were plot tools, but they really do happen. They call it thunderstorms, and hell, yeah, it is out of this world. One moment you are dehydrating, the next thing you know there is a drop in atmospheric pressure and voila! Tropical storm in an instant. It also lasts as along as that. An instant. The word 'bitin' comes to mind--the tagalog word--'not enough' just does not quite describe it.
Leia and I were having our walk after dinner when I took these photos. Mushrooms have always been very interesting to me. Tatay Dodong had bought a set of books called Childcraft and he lent them to us, my sister and me, when we were kids. One of the books was about plants and it had the most beautiful drawings of mushrooms, one I could never forget, it was blood red, bulbous, with what looked to me like snow flakes on top of its cone. I have never seen one like that. Perhaps that is a good thing. So you see, early on I never believed mushrooms where the houses of small men with long beards, annoying high-pitched voice, and cone shaped hats--but now that I think of it, this thing called 'lamat' sounds something like a hallucinogenic mushroom would do to some hungry, curious, or merely absent-minded ("Holy shit damn mushroom jumped into my mouth! I swear!") unsuspecting victim. I for one lurrrrrv champignons. I am hoping to find some one of these days.
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