Short-lived fungi

Since this week I'm on the topic of the ephemerality of life in nature, I think it's time to show you what I photographed in the garden exactly two months ago.

First, it was an unexpected encounter, if I may call it that. Second, it was even on purpose.
What do I mean?
It was one sunny May day when my boyfriend asked me if I had seen the mushrooms sprouting in the garden. But I hadn't seen them, even though I had already passed them once that day. And here proves my theory that one does not notice things one does not expect to see. 😁
Just like I didn't expect to see these mushrooms in our garden.
I had only seen mushrooms there once before. But they were in a completely different place, and they were different too - tiny, growing singly and sprouting in the moss.

Yet these ones here...

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... had grown up next to the trunk of the cherry tree.

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So I took these pictures, then I passed by the same place after three days, when only this was left there:

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I was very surprised, of course, but it seems that I did not pay enough attention to this first unexpected encounter in our garden with these plants.

Until one hot June day, exactly a month later, I noticed another cluster of fungi. In absolutely the same place - under the cherry tree.

(you can see the fallen cherries around)

And, oh, by the size of those fallen cherries, you can actually tell the size of the mushrooms. Only now, looking at these pictures, does this occur to me, and I think it turned out to be quite practical, although not an intentionally sought after effect.

The other thing that can be seen in the pictures is how the mushrooms made their way through the not so soft and loose soil, how they broke through it to get out.

Do you see it? It's so impressive, isn't it?

I took the rest of the photos very quickly.

And this can be seen in the fact that I have not been able to focus well.

But I had no choice. I only wanted to document this another strange and unexpected presence by the trunk of the cherry tree and literally run away. Because the heat that day was unbearable and I don't know about the fungi but my skin couldn't stand under that strong sun.

So I did what I could and left. I thought - no problem, in the following days I will come to photograph the mushrooms again. They are here, at least I finally saw them. And they don't have legs to run away. 😄

But well, it didn't happen the way I imagined it would.
Because when I returned to the same place two days later, instead of the above group of mushrooms, I found this:

These plants seemed to literally have run away with their legs or simply disappeared.

And it was as if I hadn't learned my lesson from the last time. It was like I had forgotten what happened a month ago, or my brain just couldn't process and comprehend it.
The speed with which living things disappear in the nature around us is something that the human brain cannot comprehend. 😌

In other places around the trunk, there were still some more remains.

Again, hard to be focused 🙄

I'm wondering, what was the weather that day, as I now can't remember. Was the heat again, or... wait, I think it was after rain or at least it was cold. Weather this summer is quite crazy, isn't it?

But whether the weather then prevented me from taking better pictures of these plants, I cannot say, because I no longer remember.

After all, it's only when I see the pictures on the computer screen that I can understand what I've done.

And since I'm only seeing them now, I can no longer say calmly: No problem, I'll take better pictures tomorrow.

Because even the next day after that, only this was visible from the clusters:

And only units of mushrooms left, in a state shortly before extinction:

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And I wonder again, is it worth it for a person to pay attention to these short-lived processes in nature around him. If he does, he'll just get sadder every day. Or he will be happy for himself and his own life. More and more every day. What do you think?

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This is my contribution to #FungiFriday by @ewkaw.

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Happy Fungi Friday to you all! 👋🍄☀️

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Copyright: @soulsdetour

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	Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you.