Fungus Art: The Traditional Malthus Family Vacation

[Malthus]

Travelled up north to the cabin in northern Quebec again this year - dodging thunderstorms on the way up.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this odd art form that my family appears to specialize in - namely, drawing or writing on Bracket Fungus. There are dozens of these things in the cabin, nearly every year we add one. There used to be a lot more, but a roof leak caused a bunch of them to rot.

Way it works is that this type of fungus, very common up north, has one side that is very sensitive to pressure and the slightest touch causes it to go black - when it is fresh. Then, when it dries out, it becomes hard as wood and the writing or drawing is preserved. The fungus itself lasts as long as it is kept dry.

Here's a writing fungus, with an account of a canoe trip I took with my dad and brother when I was 10:





My first artwork I know about, when I was nine:



And this year:



There were enormous Dock Spiders everywhere this year - it was a real banner year for them. 

I know I've shown the cabin before, but here are some views:







The boys roasting hot dogs:

[Valmy]

Wait....wait...wait...you have two sons? Holy shit I thought it was just Carl. Well nice to know about you Adrian

Oh and that is pretty weird tradition. Pity so many of them were destroyed.

Also I am impressed with how your art has improved from 1977 until now

[Syt]

Rather impressed with your penmanship at that age.

Less impressed with the hint at spiders .... 

[Eddie Teach]

Sadly, 9 year-old Malthus drew better than I. 

[Syt]

Carl doesn't look very outdoors-y. 

[Malthus]

Wait....wait...wait...you have two sons? Holy shit I thought it was just Carl. Well nice to know about you Adrian

Oh and that is pretty weird tradition. Pity so many of them were destroyed.

Also I am impressed with how your art has improved from 1977 until now

Nope - one son, one nephew. 

We borrow him for such trips, because they are very close - moreso than I was with my brothers - they get along very well and keep each other entertained. This trip they were all into the camping thing and set up a tent far from the cabin, meaning we parents get the cabin to ourselves ... it's a wonderful thing. 

[Valmy]

Ah ok. Yeah David seems to prefer his cousin over his brother, she has less time to drive him crazy.

How far did this fungi art go back? How many ended up being destroyed by the roof leak?

[Malthus]

Rather impressed with your penmanship at that age.

Less impressed with the hint at spiders .... 

They were everywhere this year. The first thing we saw when we landed was a dock spider the size of my wife's hand, hiding under a bollard on the dock. We found another, smaller one trapped in the sink, one on the lintel of the outhouse, evicted a few from our living room ...

They are basically harmless, but alarmingly large.

[Malthus]

Ah ok. Yeah David seems to prefer his cousin over his brother, she has less time to drive him crazy.

How far did this fungi art go back? How many ended up being destroyed by the roof leak?

There used to be some from the 1950s. Sadly, these older ones were all destroyed. Plus, an account of each canoe trip, from the late seventies through the mid-eighties or so; only a couple of those survived.

Also, every year for many years I did a "year" fungus, only a few survive.

Example: 1979 - Blueberry Year

[Valmy]

Well it looks like you are making a photographic record of each one now in case such a travesty occurs again 

[Malthus]

Carl doesn't look very outdoors-y. 

He's actually more into this woodsy stuff than I am. I got old and lazy, and like being comfortable too much to really relish wilderness travel like he does. 

[Malthus]

Well it looks like you are making a photographic record of each one now in case such a travesty occurs again 

Fun fact: when I was a kid, I assumed every family had an archive of fungus writing. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize almost no one does this. 

[The Brain]

Super cool.

[Tamas]

Rather impressed with your penmanship at that age.

Less impressed with the hint at spiders .... 

They were everywhere this year. The first thing we saw when we landed was a dock spider the size of my wife's hand, hiding under a bollard on the dock. We found another, smaller one trapped in the sink, one on the lintel of the outhouse, evicted a few from our living room ...

They are basically harmless, but alarmingly large.

Just this morning I saw and "evicted" the third Giant House Spider I have ever encountered. It was decidedly smaller than the last one about two years ago (and even that was probably smaller than a dock spider), but still freaked me the hell out.

I am NOT visiting the Canadian wilderness.

[Malthus]

Just this morning I saw and "evicted" the third Giant House Spider I have ever encountered. It was decidedly smaller than the last one about two years ago (and even that was probably smaller than a dock spider), but still freaked me the hell out.

I am NOT visiting the Canadian wilderness.

Dock spiders are fascinating creatures - they can run across water on the surface tension and they even dive under it, swimming to catch prey underwater; they carry an air bubble with them to breathe underwater.

However, they are alarmingly large, and they like coming indoors in log cabins - hiding in the cracks between logs is their natural habitat.  Worst part is that they love hanging around in the outhouse, because it has logs and a steady supply of bugs to eat. As a kid, taking a shit in the outhouse was a bit of an ordeal, as it tended to be full of gigantic spiders.

I remember one time I was sitting on the can when I noticed a big spider right over my head. Suddenly, its skin split open and it started to crawl out of it - that's how they grow larger; they shed their skins, like crabs. Anyway, the thing noticed me staring at it, and it shook its skin like a rattle at me - or at least, that's what it seemed. Maybe it was just part of the shedding sequence. I was worried it would drop onto my head, so I quickly concluded my bathroom trip!

Another time I was taking the cover off the boat when I found a large female dock spider carrying a huge egg sack hiding under the cover - by nearly putting my hand on her. My disturbing it evidently caused the sack to burst open, releasing a swarm of baby spiders. I quickly jumped out of the boat! 

Most alarmingly, once I went up and a branch had broken a window, letting a swarm of mosquitoes into the cabin. I made a makeshift mosquito net out of a blanket to go over our heads and my wife and I slept under that - in the morning, we woke to the sight of a gigantic dock spider upside down over our faces on the inside of this blanket - crawling out without disturbing it was tricky.