QUIET IN WINTER

Shivering, I keep walking around the San Ramon Business Park cloaked in the bone-chill of tule fog. The fog, which seeps up from the ground and is dangerous in its density, used to arrive every December but because of our ongoing drought has been absent from our area for several years. The fog, like snowfall, makes the world a quieter place. Large drops of water rain down on me from the trees as the fog hangs in their branches. A harbinger of winter.

The business park covers acres of ground, but as I walk around one block of buildings most of the first floor spaces are empty. It is quiet, and a little weird walking around the edges of the park which used to be bustling with workers. The boundaries of the park have always been open space for workers and casual walkers like me. Push-up bars, benches for sit-ups, and raised, flat bars to balance-walk one foot in front of the other are spaced carefully around the block and add an opportunity to do a little more than just a walk. I see only two other people walking briskly ahead. It is too cold and damp to stop to do a crunch. 

The park includes a pond where coots, unfazed by the fog, congregate at one end and duck under the water to look for something to eat. A pleasure boat rests against a dock waiting for Spring. Canadian geese make the park their home. They hunt among the various ground covers. I do too. In the greenery, I see mushrooms springing up. They are mostly white-capped mushrooms that grow like little armies in Northern California. Their appearance reminds me of the windows of Parisian pharmacies in Autumn. The French are well-known for collecting mushrooms, but even they don't always recognize the difference between an edible and toxic mushroom. The pharmacies remind pickers of the variety of poisonous mushrooms around Paris.

Mushrooms fascinate me. They are beneficial for medicine, food, and for renewing plant life. I remember the fairy rings from my childhood and the warning from my parents not to touch them. Since I don't know the difference between toxic and edible ones, I just take photos and draw them. I watch for them and their surprise appearance overnight. Their cycle is short and gives me a chance to document their existence and their disappearance. 

I think of Miriam C. Rice, a sculptor and fabric artist, who researched the extraction of colors from various fungi to be used as fabric dyes. Her first dyes from mushrooms were shades of yellow, but she went on to discover mushrooms that gave her rose, burgundy, and purple hues until she had a full spectrum of natural dyes.

I walk back to my car past an essential worker raking the leaves that cover the ground. We nod and I hurry on. It is quiet. It is grey. It is winter. But there is always something to see. 

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What is the difference between summer fog in San Francisco and the tule fog that arises from the Central Valley? Here's your answer:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/nativeson/article/S-F-s-summer-fog-roars-in-from-the-ocean-But-16637129.php 

Miriam C. Rice, a fascinating woman:

https://rayandmiriamrice.com/miriam-c-rice/

The International Mushroom Dye Institute founded by Miriam C. Rice:

https://www.mushroomsforcolor.com

The institute needs your help. All the copies of the book Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments, and Myco-Stix by Miriam Rice were destroyed in the CZU Lightning Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The institute depends on sales of the book. Donate if you can. 

Look through the beautiful photos of various California mushrooms with identity established:

https://www.californiamushrooms.us/photogallery.html