Our own RQ loves us enough to take pictures of mushrooms (sēnes) in a forest (meža). This is the extent of Latvian I can write courtesy of Google Translate, and I have no idea if it’s anywhere near correct, and I still am not sure how to say “fungi” or “wood mushroom” properly. Perhaps RQ can tell us while lovers of identifying pretty fungi figure out what these are.
She can also tell you more about the ruins, if she likes, should you be curious. I’m not sure what that big foundation thingy is. I’m more interested in the lovely fungi growing on the log.
How beautiful is that? Dark as the night, with a flare of sunset. Nature is one of the original artists. If I had a horse, I’d make it shoes like this and we’d go dancing.
We have a bonus mystery – I can’t tell if this is more fungi, or lichen.
Definitely enlarge that and have a gander at the textures.
And, should you want a squee, go look at what I found when I was googling sēnes. ZOMG SO CUTE!!! You guys have no idea how much I want a kitten in a knitted mushroom costume right now. Just… not under the circumstances that kitty had to wear its little costume. Don’t translate the text unless you want your squee to go sad. Here, go read why kitties like mushrooms, instead.
Ima go cuddle my ancient kitty now. Well, attempt to cuddle. You know how she is. Enjoy your shrooms, my darlings!
Let me help you out with the Latvian. :)
Forest: mežs (note masculine ending!)
Mushrooms: sēnes
Mushrooms of the forest: meža sēnes (note genitive ending on ‘mežs’)
Mushrooms in the forest: sēnes mežā (note locative ending on ‘mežs’)
Fungus (as in fungus that looks like a plate growing on a tree): piepe
Lichen: ķērpis
I don’t think it gets much more specific than that.
‘Piepe’ is a general insult for someone who is lazy or doesn’t want to go out much.
As for the ruins, they’re an old single-family homestead whose land borders the land of my husband’s family. The former neighbours, as it were. The ordinary homestead was made up of several buildings, and while I can say for sure that none of these was the barn or the living house, I can’t exactly pinpoint which buildings they were (house, shed, external pantry with basement).
Sadly, such empty homesteads in ruins are a common sight out in rural Latvia, since a lot of young people don’t see a future working off the land, so they migrate to cities, leaving only old folk and their own children to keep up the homesteads.
Often, when the older generation dies, so does the entire life of the homestead. Some people have just emigrated (the city, Ireland, etc.), with the same result. A few houses remain empty from the original deportations of 1941, when landowners were given no advance warning, a half-hour to pack, and a one-way ticket in a cattle-car to the depths of Siberia. If anyone from the family survived, they may not have attempted to regain their property in the ’90s for various reasons – or even if they did, they haven’t bothered to tend it.
Makes for awesome flora and fungi exploration, though.
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The Fungi song :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H15Po5vHiDs
seems appropriate here.
Fungi or Lichen? I’d say fungi AND lichen!
Common in agricultural regions in the US, as well. Small farms just can’t make it. Families go to the city and the land is added to a larger farm.
The green stuff is regular ol’ unidentified moss, actually. At least, I think so. it’s always lush and green, whereas I associate lichen with dried, flaky plant-like growths…
I always have a bit of a problem identifying Bracket fungi. Depending on where they grow and the local environment, a lot of different kinds of brackets can look alike and the same kind of brackets can have a lot of variation.
I’m not 100% but I’m going to say it’s a Willow Bracket (phellinus igniarius)
The third picture I enlarged but it was a bit blurry ,if its on the same tree as the other one it could possibly be a young willow bracket.
Like I said I’m not sure about the above but that’s what I love about fungi,it keeps you on your toe’s.