By: Caro Woods
Found Objects, my sketchbook pages, , , , , ,

Intriguing Papery Parcels?

I have not tampered with this picture. Caught it in the light as the sun came out.
Caught in the light as the sun came out.

Spent a couple of hours in the drizzle this morning turning over the beds in preparation for some vegetable planting.   The plot is exposed so we have to leave it as late as we dare before planting anything.  In one of the beds I haven’t tackled yet, I came across these beautiful papery lanterns hanging from woody stems.

Can anyone enlighten me?
I am surprised they have managed to withstand all the wind and rain.  Some of the bodies are beginning to pop and spill their tiny black seeds.

They are obviously the fruiting bodies of something.  But what?  Such exquisite pieces of natural engineering.  So fragile yet bursting with new life.  I am completely smitten.

I've brought them indoors to collect the seeds and do some drawings.
I’ve rescued them from the compost heap and brought them indoors to collect the seeds and do some drawings.

Does anybody know what they are?  They look like a benign form of belladonna, but the word persimmon keeps piercing my consciousness.  Is someone trying to tell me something?  Am I right or am I right?  Can someone kindly enlighten me please?