Another Year, Another Mushroom Moon Shrine. (As all beneath the Moon decays...)

Mushroom Moon Shrine, 2014. This year's was in miniature.

A whirlwind of days have passed. Birthdays, guests, gatherings, travels & fungi, of course. But the Decay Moon's happenings shall not be left unmentioned:

We began our procession around the lakeside trail, baskets in hand as usual, not knowing how this project will manifest (also, as usual). Ours is an improvisational process driven by cues fed to us -- in the moment -- by the forest floor.

This is our tradition.

Miniature, in vivid colour was the theme we were assigned. 

A vibrant, bijou ornament collected for the shrine.

And we processed -- unfortunately with some sadness & disruption due to the loss of a familiar feathered face on this tour -- in time, completing our collections & arriving at our traditional site with baskets ready to begin arranging the assemblage. 

Baskets readied for the Mushroom Moon Shrine composition.

The boys worked together steadily & carefully -- a remarkable thing given their knack for disagreement -- as I wrote the words of this day on a piece of birch bark. 

"I know that all beneath the Moon decays..."

And when it was complete, we had three layers of teeny micro landscapes. An almost unremarkable view from afar,

But increasing nearness & changing angles,

Allowed for a peek into a variety of small, fanciful, fungal worlds...

And as I looked upon another year's shrine, I reflected on the variations from year to year; the changing availability of various fungi, the tasks & roles assumed by various family members, the different outcomes... I also wondered how we will adapt when the time comes to find a new location for this shrine. It will not last forever. Like everything else under the Moon, it too shall decay.