Hi there!!!
While people are picking autumn mushrooms, I am sick again and have to stay home for a while. But there is time to remember past walks in the forest...
It is so nice to immerse yourself in the summer heat, in these juicy colors.
It was the beginning of September. Warm days with cool mornings. Incredibly strong dew. I supposed that I would find something beautiful and useful in the forest! However, strangely enough, the forest was dry. So I had to go where there is tall grass, moisture and warmth.
When the air is hot and the dew is underfoot...
Near the quarry
First I went to a young birch forest that grew above a sand quarry.
It was noon and the sun was blinding, I took photos at random. But it's so beautiful there.
And this is what I found (not for eating, but for self-development!)
I've come across these mushrooms before. But I didn't know their name. Small, neat and with a pleasant smell. But... Recently classified as poisonous species (previously included in conditionally edible).
This is a Paxillus involutus. If you taste it once or twice, then most likely nothing bad will happen. However, with regular use, poison accumulates in the body, which can then cause serious kidney or liver diseases...
Nearby I noticed a very old family of someone from Lactarius. At the break of this mushroom, milk protrudes...
So the first part of my walk turned out to be not very fruitful. But two orange-capped bolete, found between the forest and the clearing, encouraged me and made me go in search further...
In the "jungle"
A wonderful combination of golden flowers and black berries.
Once there was a clearing here (after cutting the old forest), and later birches, aspens, spruces grew... Tall grass, ferns, fallen tree trunks resemble some kind of jungle. Oh, and it's not easy to walk here!
But what can you not do for mushrooms.
I assume that there must be some boletus here, because it's humid, warm, and the grass provides protection.
And there are satellite trees nearby.
At first I found several respectable families of Leccinum aurantiacum. Since there was variable cloudiness at that time, it was interesting to watch how they change color, depending on the sunlight. Sometimes more matte, pastel, then juicy and bright. Some mushrooms were already too old... But how photogenic they are:)
Amazing Leccinum aurantiacum.
A subtle premonition of autumn...
And here are the beautiful parasol mushrooms or Macrolepiota procera! I have never tasted them before, although they are very interesting. They say that this mushroom is so delicious! But I only collect those mushrooms that I am sure of!
My favorite dish is fried birch boletus, but this time I almost ruined it.
This mushroom seemed to me to be an old specimen of this species.
But after preparing the mushrooms for frying in the evening, I rested and looked at the photo.
Then I realized that the leg of the mushroom, both in color and in shape, is not at all the same as that of boletus! It should be gray (as if dirty) and a thin leg, but here it is beautiful brown and widened to the bottom.
As I suspected, it turned out to be a Tylopilus felleus! The mushroom is not poisonous, but very tasteless because of its bitterness. I tried it on my tongue and made sure that it was so. Well, the mushroom was thrown into the trash.
But let's get back to the walk!
Suddenly I came to a small lake that formed in a crater, at the site of the fall of a russian rocket:(
I have already written about this place.
Here I unexpectedly found two boletus mushrooms, one of which is quite large.
Well, my bag was getting heavier.
Wonderful Boletus edulis, the king of fungi kingdom!
Later, to my joy, I managed to find a number of birch boletus! Neat, small and strong. They grew singly, in tall grass, so this is not easy task to find them.
My favourite Leccinum scabrum!
In a "real" forest
Finally, I reached a familiar forest path and sighed with relief, because I was already tired of walking through the bushes and grass.
With great joy I walked along the forest path and enjoyed the view of real large and thick beeches and hornbeams. I love such a dense forest!
Finally, I could rest a little on a stump and have a snack.
Above me hung a continuous curtain of still green leaves, not a soul around.
Beauty and peace. This is so important and valuable!
Such a fruitful and rich in impressions walk turned out for me.
In the temple of nature.
Oh, bitter bolete. As a kid I used to see them a lot. It was always sooo disappointing, because they looked so big and healthy, but pink underside gave them away. I wonder where did they disappear. I have not seen one in decades.