On 11 July, after months, I took my DSLR camera on my daily walk again. But I took the first photo in post on the 18th, when it was a stunning, beautiful, humid dawn. There was so much mist in the air that I couldn't see the water tower 500 metres from my starting point. I took many good pictures in the seventh month of the year, but this simple street scene became my favorite. It has a super green effect, which means I've managed to recreate the wonderful atmosphere of a humid morning. If the weather stays like this, there will be mushrooms, which I would be happy about, because I haven't seen my favourites for a long time. Just on the 11th I photographed two fungi in town, a Russula species and Caloboletus radicans. They were the only two to brave the unpleasant summer weather.
I photographed Lentinus tigrinus on the 26th. This mushroom signaled the start of the fruiting wave, which is progressing nicely. I just looked in my photo folder this year and I took a picture of mushroom on 27 April, so it's been over sixty days without mushrooms in my life. Climatechange has completely ruined the mushroom season, and that's why I stopped mushrooming. I loved it, and it gave me many, many experiences for years. Even though I listen to happy music while writing this article, I am bitter. And even with all my beautiful photos, I am still bitter and disappointed. Why am I writing this post? My blog has been of no use since 2020, and don't think of it in terms of financial gain, its intellectual usefulness has evaporated. Anyway, there remains the fun(?), as much as life can be fun for a useless person. I never thought I would hate it. So what I wrote in the previous post is really your responsibility, because I'm not playing myself anymore. Here are my uninteresting pictures.
Hungary is in serious trouble, and not because EU funding is being cut and we are slowly but surely falling out of the top 50. It is a problem that has been going on for decades, the history of the 20th century has brought too many traumas to the country, most of which have not been dealt with at the level of the psyche of the people. That is why an autocrat can rule and dazzle his fans. And then there is the fear of the small nation's disappearance, the trickiest of all, which further fuels the power of mass hypnosis. The national impostor takes what he wants. Hungary is small, but its leader is incredibly damaging. Occupied public media is a tool for "brainwashing". No dialogue within society, no "brainstorming". That's why I thought that we should bring back the clubs, where intelligent people would give lectures, discussions on various topical issues. This would be my "brain-saving" project. Hungarians, and this is a global phenomenon, are alienated from each other. The curse of the internet is that as we enter the 21st century, algorithms are trapping people in a bubble. You think you are communicating, but you are not, in fact, if you go to a forum, which is typically the blue site in our country, it is used frantically. There is no meaningful dialogue. When I find one, I am completely moved. Another downside of the internet is that it starves the social being, our social skills atrophy. That's why I think offline clubs are a good idea. There would be lectures on topical issues, some examples: climate change, artificial intelligence, ethics, population change, brain evolution, internet, democracy, etc. I have practice, I have plans, and of course I have many topics. But as a sensible person, I'm happy to hand over the idea, development and implementation of the project to someone else. I also know that what is missing is not money, but people who know the public good, who know their responsibilities, and who see that progress is made little by little, with persistent work. My green blog, the mushroom club were all part of my public service. I have done enough for the community. Now it's your turn.
I have several books on my desk and the first draft of one of my novels is open in the word processor, so I'm doing what is the work of an intellectual freelancer, reading and writing, and organising my observations. I like to think, but I also like to go out in nature. Indeed, for many years I have walked hundreds of kilometres in woods and fields. I have hundreds of beautiful photographs of natural assets. These are my best photos because they are the only ones I publish. You can see the pictures posted as illustrations on my blog's community page. A thought-provoking note: it's very interesting how the internet is distancing us from each other. It is a huge challenge to get people to be truly present, to connect with each other and to enjoy and appreciate life. Something has distorted their thinking and I can't figure out what the hell has gotten into them. During the two years of the epidemic, I observed that they approached the remaining green in a mall-like manner, as if it were some kind of entertainment artificial centre, when it is very much not! I've been really lucky in that I've never been out in the open air to have fun, but to get to know it. I was genuinely interested in nature, the other creatures I share the earth with. Of course, I enjoyed the good compounds evaporating from the plants, the smell of the leaves, the feel of the mushrooms, the humidity, the touch of the breeze. I am a sentient, thinking creature, and I have given myself over to green. Perhaps they have become devoid of content and have nothing to impart, in fact they have become artificial, like the spaces we inhabit in our everyday lives? We have been reduced to our functions, like some kind of component of the greedy machinery of our civilization, which eats life and shits garbage. And what's in between, because judging by the general mood, it's not exactly a joyous mood for the majority. In fact, there is hardly any genuine emotion.
I'm surrounded by objects and walls, I use mechanical tools, even though I'm a sentient being. I'm struggling to make a living, arguing with the only man in my life about why I don't make money when I'm always working on something. I cannot even tell him that I will be "discovered" after my death, and that this will give him some compensation for what he "suffered" from me during our life together. Everything I've built my knowledge on has been screwed up. Human is devalued. He is only useful if he offers himself as a component to the life consuming system. I absolutely doubt that AI will bring us a golden age. The history of the 20th century has shown us exactly what technological leaps, mass death and dictatorship bring! I was horrified when the image generator gave me a "nice forest" image based on the description given. Because I know the reality and took many photos. Here is a spring post from two years earlier. Whatever I do, I really only live in the hope that I can have a small impact and make a difference in at least a hundred people. There is nothing beyond that but bitterness and grief. For summer reading, I recommend Arthur Herzog's novel Heat.
At the age of 45, I am fully aware of my mortality and I know that death is the destruction of my being. I don't believe in any god, afterlife or reincarnation because as a fantasy writer I recognise the self-delusions of wishful thinking and as a self-analyst I know exactly that I am a random assemblage of matter and that there is no ethereal miasma that will fly away from my body after my heart has beaten its last beat and my lungs have collapsed. As a thinking person, I recognised the limitations of my existence and gave myself a small purpose in life. To push things a little bit in the right direction, to keep a little bit of life on earth, to pass on a little bit of power to those who have heard my words and understood them. That is all I have undertaken. One day I will die, but on my deathbed, if there is one and it is not a quick death, the tangible results of my tiny efforts will comfort me and ease the natural sense of loss, as we can all cry most of all for ourselves. (I will not mention the pain of parenthood, because the loss of a child is a double blow.) Yes, seeing that my actions have had an impact goes beyond me and gives meaning to my existence. Never underestimate the consequences of your small actions, because many things don't come back, but you never know who you've put a smile on, given a moment of insight to, or annoyed, but in this case you've hit on a point that needs to be addressed. That's what I was thinking about yesterday as I was walking, what I have achieved so far and what positive impact I can have on the world for the rest of my life. For me, discovering nature and mushrooms has given me a lot of joy and experience. I have moments of pure and innocent joy in my memory. Life flashes before my eyes, LIFE with a capital letter. Life on earth is the only miracle I can truly experience, and that is why I hold the fruiting bodies of my favourite mushrooms in my hands with reverence, because they represent that for me. I don't believe in anything, but I respect life and know it is worth preserving. That is my mission. P.S.:Amanita spp. are in the photos. My photos from last autumn. On July 14, I'll be giving another online lecture, I'll be presenting Amanita spp. and Cantharellus/Craterellus spp.
The images in today's online presentation are
mostly my own photos. I was conscientious in my research of the natural
values of my homeland and very quickly noticed the changes caused by
climate change. Fungi are a natural asset, and edible mushrooms provide
an ancient link to nature. I am very lucky to have been born in the last
century, as a child without high-technology, and to have been able to
wonder at nature and start on the mushrooming path. And as a middle-aged
woman, I experience the destruction of climate change accelerated by
our species and the crisis of our civilisation. I have strange feelings.
I find it very interesting the common tragedy of small nations in a globalised world trying to maintain a semblance of unity through sentimental nationalism. I have found as a thinking person that a nation is an abstraction that we cannot make sense of in practical life and let's face it, there is not that much difference between people! There is an incredibly big common problem facing humanity that affects everyone - climate change. Let me also say that, as a Hungarian, I am aware of our shared historical experience with the Romanians. In fact, I consider them related and I love their language. I can understand them very well as members of another small nation that was equally affected by the Soviet occupation, and we had some beautiful moments in history before, shared rulers and heroes. So I'm not a little bit against them, I'm speaking for us, for all of us, so I'm writing this article. And I understand perfectly well the reasons for nationalism, but it is important to be patriotic. A patriot does indeed take the fate of his whole nation to heart, but he is able to rise above his bad feelings and become generous and see what is really important. Is he really serious about leaving a viable future for his children? The unimaginable scale and speed of deforestation in Romania is not a patriotic act, but a waste of the treasure of future generations. When you hear nationalist rhetoric and talk about mountains, forests and small clearings, look out of the window and see the tragic, senseless reality!
On Friday evening at 8pm I will be giving an online presentation on the mushrooms of summer. I'm planning four presentations, the first a summary of the hot season through the eyes of a mushroom picker. I have been a mushroom lover since childhood, but climate change is really destroying the innocent pleasures of nature.I never wanted to sell my favourites on the market. I am very keen to teach, but I would certainly not abuse the gifts of the forest and the field for commercial purposes. We don't have to eat everything, and yet I see the mindless greed with which we devour the very basis of our lives, the living world. We ignore the damage, that is already damaging us in the present. Our stupidity is backfiring on us! It is very difficult to act wisely, but we must, because we are killing ourselves with our civilisation. The mere fact that I have a 2011 edition laptop to access the internet, power and data storage is harming wildlife. I can see through the intricate web of impacts. I don't need an advanced knowledge to do this, just a sensitive awareness of my environment. Human takes from nature, but it matters how much and what he gives in return! We have forgotten a lot of vitally important things! And then we gawk stupidly about why we die in the heat in summer, because it's increasingly likely that you will be one of the victims of a heatwave that can reach over 40 degrees Celsius in summer. This year, Morocco has already had a high of 48 degrees Celsius, and it's typical for the Saharan heat to move into Europe at some point. The Carpathian Basin also acts as a heat island during the hot season. You can't imagine what it's going to be like here soon. Foresight is not really a characteristic of "modern" human. Ironically, our scientific name is Homo sapiens. This is a killer irony. But I can't laugh.
