Thats a really quite beautiful beetle. When I was young and she was still alive, whenever I'd go up to yorkshire to stay with my grandmother Ifather's side) I'd always end up going off on entomology hikes and go up into the woods and roam the hills for hours too, picking mushrooms. Sometimes the mushrooms were so damn prolific that it wasn't a tray I had to bring, but big black bin liner sacks I'd get so many delicious delicacies, masses of real good'uns, like Cep/Penny Bun (Boletus edulis) one of the most widely traded and commercialized fungi in the world, and for good reason. Fresh, rather than made into canned soup etc. fried in butter...absolutely delicious, I'd get all kinds of waxcaps, like the scarlet hood, and Hygrocybe pucinnea (sp?) as well as Camararophyllus pratensis, a big bugger for a waxcap, known as the meadow waxcap for its habit of growing..well...probably doesn't need much explanation there now does it?
( and those are really good eating when fried up in butter with a wee bit of salt. If I was really lucky I'd find puffballs. And the meadows were often full of Psilocybe semilanceata, aka the liberty cap. A small brownish, quite pale tan mushroom, with distinctive tall, very thin stem (1mm or so) and a prominent; nipple shaped protrusion from the very top of the cap and with dark violety-black spore print.
These are one of the two strongest magic mushrooms that you can find in the UK , the other really super-strong one being Psilocybe cyanescens which are just nutty potent although not as common. Thats how I had my first ever shroom experience, snunk some in to this away-trip (pun seen afterwards but quite intended) with my first LFA school, can't remember how old I was, but not a great deal past 9yp or so at the oldest. We went for about a week to a hostel in yorkshire (and lol I added a few more libs to the wee mint tin I had the dried ones ready) and took them during a midnight feast that I, and all the other autie kids had with treats we had all brought to share. Nobody could know, and whilst I wish I had enough to share with everybody, I only had enough mushrooms for a single dose. So I took them after just popping out of view for a moment, swallowed the lot and returned.
Interestingly enough, after that experience, which was pretty great, especially with my getting to spend some time with these two girls, kate and laura, one w/ either AS or given this hand-wringing thing she did all the time possibly a mindly expressed case of Rett syndrome, and laura, LFA. Was always good friends with both of them although me and laura did occasionally for whatever reason fight like a bag of cats with their balls tied together. Still we were good friends most of the time, and I was really close to kate. Both of them were real stunners. Odd things are-laura still could pass for about 11, although I still have as much of a thing for her now as I did when I was in school with her. (its high time I call up another friend of mine who went to a different school she went to as well and find out her address again, go pay another visit. Her folks are really nice people too. Hopefully they won't have any problem with my asking laura out to dinner on a date, because I've been completely crazy about her since I first set eyes on her about 20 years ago, maybe more, she's just such a sweetie, dead pretty, has the cutest voice, lovely lass and just impossible to dislike)
And the other oddball thing was after my first time with the mushrooms I started becoming MUCH more socially aware, much less of most, although not all of the negative potential effects of being lfa. Essentially my functioning level at that age underwent a dramatic, drastic level of increase to a degree high enough for me to actively realize and notice it taking place, over the next few weeks or so.afterwards.
I can't help, given the timing, rapidity and degree of it, but think it due to the effects of the psilocybin/psilocin. And wonder whether for young lfa kids, it should be offered, with everything about it explained to them, in at least a pilot study and for autie kids, lfa especially, who consented to a psilocybin/psilocin experience, always done in an environment comfortable and familiar to them, where they are happiest naturally, with all the sensory toys and gadgets they could shake a stick at, any music they want, to give them just that. And of course compare functioning levels over time, with one or more experiences with it, with those kids who don't want to at that time, as well as compare with use at different ages. My gut tells me that younger, whilst developing actively, may well be better. I think it was for me, comparing the first time with others I've had in my late 20s, 30 etc or my teens. I think youth, or more accurately, the development that occurs during that time, is a key factor, certainly I do for my own self.
