ADDICTION

 

        However, passion is something that is difficult to fight, something like an addiction – it is impossible to resist – so we, “addicted”, spent another day in the field.

This time, we went to the area around Leśna Woda. As usual, Andrzej found the place somewhere.

It was the perfect time of year for mushrooms, which meant more mycological encounters😊.

It was quite humid, which was noticeable as soon as we got out of the car, as you can see in the photo below.

We entered the forest and it began. The first fallen tree trunk stopped us in our tracks. It started with some tiny things (I don't know if they were slime molds or mushrooms 😟) but that were pretty and very, very small.

Then it only got better—we came across the beautiful Lion's mane mushrooms , which were hard to tear ourselves away from.

When we finally left them alone (more out of common sense than desire), Joanna found the first dead man's fingers  (also known as “devil's fingers” in Polish).

After that, Gosia found another one—and once again we were lying in the leaves.

While “lying down,” I spotted another little creature—Cyathus striatus

It was all small, so we kept lying down—but I think it was worth it for those shots.

Meanwhile, on the neighboring tree trunk, sitting calmly... a brain! 

That's what it reminded me of, but really it was a Ascocoryne sarcoides (I think?).

Gosia and Andrzej took care of it.

From left: Andrzej and Gosia

Joanna, on the other hand, was responsible for tracking down and finding our “victims.” 

Joanna - in the version - Tracker

So, we still have: Puffballs

Some kind of mushrooms covering the trunks

Peziza - type of fungus

And finally, a beech trunk covered with fungi. 

I took this photo while standing up. 😊 

Gosia or Andrzej—I don't know which—found a mushroom “occupied” by a beetle, and until it began to “evacuate,” we thought it was dead (the insect, that is)—nothing could have been further from the truth—despite the cold, it was active.

Time passes quickly, so after about two hours we started to pack up.
By the way, we found some mushrooms sticking out of the leaves by the ditch – probably Clavulina rugosa but I'm not sure.

We went out onto the road and, to our amazement, it turned out that we had spent the whole time no more than 50 meters from the car ???!
Hmm, and we walked so far...😲

Returning to Andrzej and finding places – I don't know where he gets his ideas from, but as befits a professor, he is very creative.

Unfortunately, I am different – I have already mentioned that I like places I know and don't really like venturing into new ones. This is probably because after circling around a tree, I have no idea where I am.
If someone wanted to tell me that you can find your way by the moss growing on trees, I'm sorry to say that this is not true because moss grows on the trunk on every side of the tree.😱😂
Anyway, I often think that with my desire to travel, we would still not know that other continents exist...
Although I'm not sure if we would also know that we have a sea... 
Well... 


Photo: Marek Czubaszek