Introduction

 

This blog is run by a small group of women dedicated to the strange world we live in. We express this wonder through appreciation posts and short stories exploring odd realities. We're not exactly sure what we want this blog to become. As it stands, we're not even sure on the intent of it’s current form. All we know is that for the last year or so, some of us have had this odd feeling for which we've had trouble finding a word to describe. We would say we get the sensation most intensely, but not exclusively, when walking in nature; Hence the title.

 Many of us currently live minutes from large nature reserves which rarely gets visitors. Not only is it full of native plants and animals, but when close to the ground, or standing beside trees on a cold winter morning, lichen, algae, moss, and all manner of fungi are ever present. I suppose the most apt word we might use to describe a portion of what I feel in those moments would be humility, but even that has its limitations. From here I’m not sure where to take the description, so we might take a slight tangent to provide context using one of our author's experiences.

  "On occasion, when I fail to eat the punnet of strawberries in our fridge in time, mold will begin to grow on them. The mold might only be present on one or two of them to begin with, but will quickly spread to others in the case. In a matter of days, it will consume the entire group and may even begin to peak its particularly large follicles through the air holes in the containers lid. From the first onset of the fungi, which was ever-present since its purchase, it began to grow, consume and mutate anything it could contact. After it reached some sort of tipping point, days after being placed in the fridge, it would be found in a day or two to have completely overtaken anything within

That mutation through consummation that fungi extend to anything around them is something I find exceptionally beautiful and possibly the most alien thing that exists in the entire world. Because of this, I find it a shame that the first thing that comes to most peoples minds from the word ‘fungus’ is ‘foot’. There are currently estimated to be upwards of four million species of fungi in the world, of which only 120,000 have been even partially categorized.

Our lacklustre and relaxed understanding of this bizarre and microscopic world is one of the reasons I find it so alluring. This was probably the reason I enjoyed the film Fantastic Voyage, made in 1966. The film involves a group of scientists shrinking down to microscopic size and navigating inside a human body, through the use of an equally small submarine. When they first get shrunken down and enter the veins of the man they’re inside, one of them delivers a profound and beautiful quote. “We stand in the middle of infinity between outer and inner space, and there's no limit to either.” That idea of there being so much unseen at that level, and the possibility of it extending forever, was amazing. Not only that, but it also gave me a sense of calm.

It might have been that film in particular which gave me my first insight and curiosity into the unseen microscopic world and gave rise to the feeling I now get throughout the day. This knowledge that we are surrounded by the most exotic and alien forces that have ever existed on the face of the earth, but largely go unnoticed through our daily actions. That these microscopic worlds inhabit every corner of the globe, and permeate every action of our being. Furthermore, that, for the most part, we fail to understand the interconnectedness of these systems, and so, fail to appreciate them.

These systems can bring into context and perspective our daily life, and help in figuring out exactly what matters and what does not. As well as this, we gain humility in accepting that there are forces acting beyond our knowledge, that are without motive or understanding. They simply are."