AUTUMN IN THE BELGIAN “ALPS”
It’s a bit of an exaggeration to compare the “Ardennes” to the Alps but it’s true that there are beautiful wooded hills in the South of Belgium, dotted with prehistoric vestiges, like menhir rocks and ancient tombstones, and home to a large population of reindeer.
My friend Jean-Paul is a keen walker. It was him who pushed me into a walking holiday this summer, along an ancient pilgrimage route from Piacenza into the Tuscan hills. This autumn Jean-Paul proposed to go mushroom picking and to listen to stags …braming during the night in the mating season. The latter occur between the end of September and the beginning of October, during (and don’t ask me why) the hunting season. At night, the stags confront each other in harsh duels. The winner gets to mate with the females.
People are not allowed to go into the forest at night but Jean-Paul has been doing it for years, since the time when their kids were in primary school. He knows the best spots and he has memories of the sudden appearance of a stag duel int the middle of a field under a fool moon. Tonight we climb up a path in complete darkness. Our eyes get used to it slowly but still you have to be at once confident and careful about where you put your feet. At one point we get out of the trees and cross a field that is bathed in moon light. We gain a nice spot on the side of a tree, overlooking the field and the edges of the forest in all directions. After a short moment, the first stags begin to cry at each other from different corners of the forest. They must have smelled us of course but their stake is far more important. We hear them getting closer to each other and at suddenly we hear the sound of antlers clashing. It lasts only a moment. There is silent and then more cries, deep cries that are almost human. One can smell the pungent odor of the males in the air. We remain in our spot for a couple of hours but the stags will be at it all night.
Jean-Paul lives in an ancient stone cottage surrounded by a fruit orchard and a field where his sheep graze among the Lepiota Procera. Those are the first we pick the next morning. Tall brown mushrooms that are excellent cooked in a pan with butter and eggs! Jean-Paul goes to pick mushrooms like someone going to buy vegetables in a market. He has different spots depending on the type of mushroom, he walks briskly towards them and more often than not, he reappers with a few specimen. We find some Boletus and Cantharellus. But I cannot prevent myself from photographing the most colorful poisonous Amanita Muscaria.
Once back, Jean-Paul announces what will turn out to be the most exciting event of the year: soon he will slaughter some lambs and quite probably he will also slaughter a sheep and this is still available, if I want it.
MARIA TARANTINO @ WILDUNDOMESTICATED 
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