Fungi and Slime Molds...Yipee!

So much fungi, so little time!

 

For my fun with the Princess Sara Quest and journey, I have to figure out who the 'bad' guys are. I swapped a mummy head to this Witch's body from the D&D collection. I thought it would be fun to have her making a potion out of some rather wilted looking fungi.

This dude is a mix up of head, hair, and body. I just put it all together because it made this minifig look rather crazy. He is holding a fungi that grows on old oak logs called 'Deadman's Fingers'. 

I feel it is appropriate for Zombie type Minifigs.

I'd stuffed these guys in my pocket when I went out to check the fence the other morning. I couldn't help but stop and set up these little shots.

My fence inspection found a tree that fell on the fence in the valley so I have to get back and fix that sometime very soon. At the moment I have access to the valley shut off. The mules like to go there on hot days as it is a cooler area.

However, I hit the bonus of all cool things in the forest on my way back home.

Fungi and Slime Molds!

I'm not going to try and ID all of them for you. Just enjoy the shots. Of the ones I know, I will give the names. Otherwise researching these would take up more time away from the pressing chores that are waiting me outside today.

Unknown Fungi. 8 shot focus stack hand held done in camera. Olympus has computational photography which will do an auto focus stack in the proper settings. It will also combine those shots into a jpg. In the past I've used Helicon Focus for this. However, since I like to get the shot and not spend too much time working in a program, I trust my OM-5 to help me out. 

[Not all the shots are focus stacked. Some were just quick shots. I have to keep moving even though I wanted nothing better to do than just explore more.]

This was about an inch and a half tall. I had a little light that I used to light it up from the side.

Happy little fungi on a moss strewn log...
the witch was using some of the wilted ones in her potion....

Here is another favorite of mine. Coral Fungi. It has a scientific name. I've ID'd it before, but I love thinking of it as Land Coral.

This is a few days old so it is turning brown. But this log ought to provide for more beautiful formations this summer.

Mark that log!

Some of my ALL time favorite Slime Molds!
Chocolate Tube Slime. I laid the lighter on the log for perspective.

Isn't this little forming one cute?

and then there are its big brothers...

the first shot was taken in the morning. The second shot was taken in the early afternoon so they could have been drying out. This stuff is usually gone in about 24 to 48 hours. 

What a lucky find for me! I haven't seen slime mold for a while since we've had such dry years.

The log I found it on. They look like they are marching across the log.

Another favorite. Deadman's Fingers. They get creepier as they get a little larger. But pretty neat in my book.

And last but hopefully not the last I find this weekend. A pretty little gilled mushroom on a moss covered log.

I mean, who doesn't like cute fungi and slime molds???

Little Tiny Stuff

Yesterday morning there was enough humidity to have a small hoar frost. I saw the sun glinting through the trees and realized that shiny silvery glow I saw was frost!
I think the mules were a bit surprised as to how fast I tossed out hay into their feeder and trotted up to the shed to stash my hay 'sled'.
I grabbed the little red camera and took off.

The burdock sported little frosty crystals.

See the little hooks? And the crystals?

Pretty cool right?

Barbed wire fence:

Multi flora rose thorn in the woods above the creek:

I guess I am always pleasantly surprised every time I take a little walk through the woods and down around the creek.

I sat on a rock and listened to the sounds. There was a mossy rock at my feet. See that arrow?

Now look at the crystal!

As a side note:

Just so you know, this isn't always an easy feature to use but it sure beats trying to set up a DSLR camera. It took me about 4 or 5 shots to get one that I wanted.
When in Microscopic mode the camera takes fairly small photos. Something like 5MB. I wanted a larger print of one of the crystals and finally did work out a way to make it clear AND large enough.

Had I just tried to make an 8 by 10 print it would have turned out noisy and spotty.
I found a work around to that and printed out a nice photo of a snowflake.

The RAW files are much larger but I think Microscopic Mode defaults to a jpeg file.

All right, geek stuff aside, I did find it just perfect for FB, blogs, and other places on the internet.

My favorite of the day was the one below.

This was the middle portion of a twig that was laying across a small rock.

Here is how the twig looked when I pulled back a bit:

I was pretty amazed at how this turned out as I used the 'In focus stack' feature and this was hand held.

Yep, that is a tiny twig with frost growing on it.

The Tiny World is delightful and I am having a great time finding little things on some of these short winter days.



If you suddenly and unexpectdly feel joy, don't hesitate.
Give in to it.
~Mary Oliver