This blog is a baby and can barely walk. So I start with baby steps. The goal is to express some ideas and share stories about fungi. So where did this blog name that I use BOLETEBILL come from?

My name is Bill.

Bolete is a general, non-technical term for a specific group of mushrooms. Boletes are the fleshy, soft-bodies mushrooms that have pores under the cap instead of gills. the most famous bolete is the King Bolete, Boletus edulis. In Italian it’s Porcini, “Little Pig”. Boletes are the group of mushrooms that I study the most. Boletes are my special interest of study. My specialty.

Way back in the beginning of time, in 2001, I discovered that people were having discussions on the internet on places called “message boards”. I’m a Nature Nut, a science geek, a lover of wild things. I joined an early message board called Natural History L where people talked about all the things I loved: trees, butterflies, birds, ecology, mushrooms, bugs, environmental issues, rivers, fields, turtles, dragonflies…you get the idea. This was a fantastic disdivery…I had found my people, later to be known a my peeps. This group was dominated by butterfly enthusiasts and much of the talk was about taxonomy and evolution. I dove right in the deep end, head first. the peeps here all had “internet nicknames” that communicated their interests- bugman, dragonlady, save-the-bay, earthmomma,harrysparrowhawk, deathcap-dave, and so on….so for purposes of this ONE group, this new thing “the message board” I chose the name boletebill..I figured this will communicate my interest, mushrooms and which ones I specialize in, the boletes and my real name. I thought if I ever join another group I’ll use my real name or another “internet pseudonym”…but that never held…

Later when I discovered other groups, other social media I used my real name. But invariably someone would comment “hey Bill are you the BOLETEBILL from Natural History L?” And I’d have to say “Yeah, that’s me.” and so that name has followed me, even though I’ve tried to abandon it, to send it away, to deny it… it comes back. It FINDS me. So I chose to embrace it. Accept.

So boletebill is my internet identity, my tag, my user name and finally the name of my first blog.

BOLTEBILL’S Fungi of Southern New England.

And that’s what I want to write about..