Self-irony is the salt of life

I was very much a child when I first heard the song and it became an instant favourite because I really couldn't sing or dance and I still can't. I really like this kind of humour. Self-irony is cool. This song had a subconscious influence on one of my novels, in which the extremely handsome hero falls from one awkward situation to another, but he has a great time with them because he's troubled by a very big problem. I love my stories. They warm my heart. True, no one understands why I'm giggling. It is when I am adventuring in my imagination with my lovable and feeble heroes that I am truly alive. Reality is harsh and cruel, but fictional reality is exactly what I make it. I fill my imagination with wonder and dance and sing out with my heroes. Okay, there are no professional singers and dancers among them, so it's a bit of a weird party. Everyone is clumsy, but it's overwhelmingly fun to see the fallibility and grandeur come together.

The meaning of words

The novel is a major intellectual work of European culture. There is an interesting correlation between the development of the novel and the development of societies. The characters in the novels are all relatives of Dr Faust and are equally part of our lives and dreams. Nothing new under the sun. What was the experience of the ancient Greek citizen is the experience of the modern man.
I was not even twenty when I realised that my consciousness was deceptive, that I was a clever illusion of brain activity at work inside me, and that I was nothing but a mass of information. In fact, my awakening to consciousness occurred when I had enough information available to my brain to present me as a person. Of course, my physical endowments, determined by my genes, also influenced the development of my consciousness, but I was shaped more by information from the outside world. Very quickly my head was filled with modern-day versions of ancient stories embedded in culture. I chose heroes, or types, with whom I could identify. Who am I? I am the role that best serves my survival. The human race's survival strategy, which includes a cataclysm, is remarkable. I will write about this later in another article, now back to the role of culture, the novel, in our lives. Both God and the soul are cultural genes (memes) that have been passed down for thousands of years. Funny, but I know I don't have a soul and I am guaranteed not to be an earthly double of any celestial ethereal being. As a middle-aged woman, I have enough experience to see through a meme or two and laugh at them. It's very important to be introspective, to analyse my actions and thoughts, because that's how I've discovered a lot of deception. Oh yes, it is controversial that the deceiving mind is introspective. Absurd. That's right. Funny. But for all its strange flaws, the brain is an important tool. It is our only means of knowing the world. It is the only tool that allows us to see the human in each other, and to work together. It is the illusion of the brain, the consciousness, that allows us to see ourselves as a person who is different from others and yet similar to them. This is very important. Diversity and similarity shape our society in a dynamic interplay. The shared knowledge, the heroes, the stories of progress written in novels are all to our benefit. I'm trying to wrap my mind around something much bigger. A mass of almost half a billion people, and millennia, ripple before my mind's eye.
The story is not over. Although our global civilisation is pervaded by a kind of melancholy death wish, this is also a mistake. Anyone who has seen rocks dating back hundreds of millions of years knows that we are on a bigger adventure than this postmodern digester. Most importantly, never forget what you are heir to and what you need to preserve so that our species can be part of the million-year journey that is just beginning.

Mushrooms in late November

I walk at least one hundred kilometres on my two feet every month throughout the year, but if there's something to document, I walk a lot more. In October I walked more than two hundreds. One of my basic ideas is that the main characteristic of life is movement. That which lives, moves. I spend a lot of time sitting at my laptop as a writer, so exercise is vital for me. No bad weather, just bad clothes. Each month has its own beauty and value. So I was delighted with today's walk. I was accompanied by my three shroomer friends. Together we enjoyed the gifts of late autumn. While looking for mushrooms we also went to the biggest and oldest oak tree in Póstelek. Sadly, the majestic oak is dying. We should take the plight of the oak trees more seriously, because we will soon be negatively affected by the persistent water shortage! It looks so wet now the land, but we only had 11mm of rain in October and 45mm in November. This year the annual rainfall has not yet reached 400 mm. This is very little, not enough for the trees! In fact, it was the floods of the past, the extra water, that allowed the oaks to colonise the landscape. Rivers are dammed, floodplains no longer get extra water, groundwater is extremely deep, the county is dry, oaks are dying of thirst. Then, twenty years later, we too...

The old oak is taller than the other trees, and its remaining branches are more extensive. Less than ten of these giants remain in the county. What do you think the future holds for the people of Békés County if even the old oaks are dying? Something is fatally wrong here. I've written a lot about this on my blog. But change never happens in the absence of interest. Those who still have the vitality, like me, prefer to leave. And rightly so! What wants to die must be allowed to die. Those who want to live should go where people really live and act. "Don't disturb a dying man with his live screaming!" It is important that you see this and then run away. Hungary does not want to live. It is old and demented and does not like loud people. This is another lesson of November for me. If people are not interested in life=nature, there is no point in me being here. It was important for me to realise that I was really alone and that I had no business being here. I did what my conscience told me to do.

For you, this picture means nothing about dirt roads and tree plantations. A boring piece of landscape. But I know that two hundred metres away there is one of the oldest oak trees in the county and the younger oak plantation next to it is full of blooming hollowroots in April. Moreover in the plantation there are a few of broad-leaved helleborine. I toured the small wooded areas of the county. I was actually very fond of the landscape because I was really interested in its values.But apart from me, very few people are interested in values, and I have been editing and growing the blog for more than ten years in vain. Now I'll stop. My body is changing and my interests are expanding. Before I die, I want to know more and get my message to more people. It's not a big thing, but it's the mission I was born to do. I will finish the article. See the photos.

Daily mushrooms

December-like temperatures outside, but the fungi have not given up, with some species still growing their fruiting bodies. These were brought to the market today me, that I tell their names and whether they are edible. I have gave back the meadow mushroom Agaricus moellerianus, the spotted blewits Lepista panaeolus and its relative the field blewits L. personata as food. Tomorrow I will also go to my main place, the castle park in Póstelek. I'm going to present one of my favourite presentations. Then I look around for mushrooms.
The end of November is a beautiful time. I like weather that encourages deep reflection. The misty mornings and the sunlight shining through the humid air have a mystical effect.
It is important that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. Dress in layers, wear waterproof footwear and head for the real world.

Mushrooms as our values 4.

I have reached the final article presenting the material from my presentation on 5 November. In the presentation I introduced twenty local edible mushrooms. My extra goal with the mushrooms was to show the whole season and the habitats. I was able to talk surprisingly much about the twenty mushrooms, and it took four articles to describe them in writing. I started with mushrooms from April, and now in the last article I'll open with a mushroom that has been growing since April.
The pavement mushroom Agaricus bitorquis is urban mushroom, but can also be found in "nature". In its habitat, the semi-in-ground growing fruiting bodies makes it difficult to photograph one of its important features, the double ring. So I photographed two of its fruiting bodies in the palm of my hand, which I picked up from under the street trees on my walk to work. You can see the distinctive ring. Good, edible mushroom, but they are always earthy and it's a bad idea to pick mushrooms for food in the polluted streets of cities.

The shaggy inkcap Coprinus comatus is also an urban fungus, but found everywhere in grassy, nutrient-rich places. The picture was also taken in the city. It grows from spring to autumn, but takes a forced break in the hot, dry summer. One of the most easily recognisable fungi. For me, it was the first one I identified immediately after seeing it on the cover of the fungi book. When young it is a good edible mushroom provided that it is eaten soon after being collected. It keeps wrong because of the autodigestion of its gills and cap. As long as its long, straight gills are white and the cap is closed, it's worth picking up and quickly preparing as a meal. It is grown for its medicinal properties and is preserved by freeze-drying.

The fairy ring champignon Marasmius oreades is one of the best known and best spice-mushrooms. One of the ingredients of its special fragrance is hydrogen cyanide which disappears when cooked. However, this is why mushrooms should not be eaten raw! The tiny, fragrant fruiting bodies have a sweet taste due to their high trehalose content. Trehalose is a disaccharide to which you can be sensitive in the same way as to lactose. It is this high sugar content that allows the dried fruiting bodies to revive perfectly when soaked in water. The best mushroom to dry. Although picking the tiny mushrooms is meticulous work, after drying they all fit into a single, tightly sealed jar.

The parasol mushroom Macrolepiota procera is growing to considerable size, yet slender, with huge hats its fruiting bodies are the dream of many a shroomers. The photo of the habitat shows a typical young fruiting body. This is the kind of sight a shroomer jumps at. In good weather years, when there is sufficient rainfall, it starts to bear fruit from May and can be harvested until the end of November. The last time I was able to take some at the end of the eleventh month was in 2019. Interesting that I always find it in wooded habitats, although it also lives in fields.

The giant puffball Calvatia gigantea is belongs in the same Agaricales as the previous mushrooms in this entry. The large white fruiting bodies are edible when young. Unlike most mushrooms, all the spores of the giant puffball are created inside the fruiting body; large specimens can easily contain several billion spores. The puffball has no cap and no stipe, and no gills. This is a giant spore-spreading hymenium in double peridium. Its habitat is easy to find in spring, when its brown, dry, spore-spreading, old fruiting bodies are visible in the low vegetation. These places are kept secret by all shroomers. But giant puffball is not a rare fungus, it only likes to grow in nutrient-rich, dense areas that are difficult to access. It is therefore best to look for its habitats in spring.

Mushrooms as our values 3.

The olive wax cap Hygrophorus persoonii is forest mushroom, associated with oaks. Yes, it is a good, edible mushroom in Békés county. It would also fit in the previous post, which I introduced you to the five good mushrooms that live in forests and also drew your attention to the importance of trees. It has been added to the third post to serve as a transition from the previous one to the new post, in which I present the autumn-winter mushrooms. The Hygrophorus genus is autumn fruiting. Two well-known species are the non-slimy pinkmottle woodwax H. russula and the very slimy ivory woodwax H. eburneus.The olive wax cap has a typical features: a very slimy olive-brown cap and thickly slimy stipe with ring-like zoning. After the slimy is removed, it can be prepared as a dish. This is a lesser known edible mushroom in the county.

The trooping funnel Infundibulicybe geotropa is much better known and loved. This great, spicy-aroma mushroom is a soil-dwelling  saprotrophic for our woody habitats. My photo shows is its typical fruiting body. There is always a small bump in the middle of its cap. It is quite a striking size. Its hat cap be as large as twenty centimetres in diameter. When it is very funnel, it has a strong aroma. Better to pick at the size shown in my photo. It can be used in many ways, for example to make a very tasty tarragon soup. Also delicious as a mushroom cream with butter. It's a pity that October was dry, because so far it hasn't been able to grow much fruiting bodies.

The field blewits Lepista personata is also an easily recognisable mushroom. Under its milky coffee-coloured cap its stipe is purple. The purple stipe is its great and striking feature. Its habitat photo shows that it is not a forest mushroom, prefers grasslands. Easily established in natural effect gardens. This year I picked up several fruiting bodies from under the elderberry bushes in the chicken yard. It survived the dry October, the humid dawns gave it enough moisture and it continues to grow its fruiting bodies, including in my garden. It is as a common autumn mushroom, many people collect it. Although its unique aroma is divisive. I think it makes a great fried mushroom after precooking. Precooking weakens its strong aroma. This is useful tip.

The oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus is the adjective "late" in its Hungarian name. This refers to its autumn growing season. The cold starts the growth of the fruiting body. Grows until the hard winter frosts. Then it takes a break and has another crop after the spring thaw. It then gives up its habitat to its relative, the pale oyster P. pulmonarius. We know oyster mushroom well, because we grow them. That's why many people like to collect them. Strange, but the smell reminds me of chicken meat when I fry it in oil. Its flesh is stronger and fibrous. So it's better to pick it when it's tender, cut off the short stipe and eat less of it. It makes a good base for mushroom meatballs. I have included a video at the end of the post. Getting ready. It'll make you hungry in a minute.

The velvet shank Flammulina velutipes is a real winter mushroom. As soon as spring arrives, its fruiting bodies disappear in April. It's a strange fact, but it really can withstand the weaker frosts, and the cold doesn't destroy the fruiting bodies. Of course, the fruiting bodies will eventually age just the same. So it's worth picking it in the beautiful condition shown in my photo. Only the cap is edible, the stipe is too fibrous. Its cap is extremely slimy when wet and fresh. It's impossible to get the slime off. Therefore, it must be made into a food in which it is not a nuisance. Otherwise a good, edible and medicinal mushroom, very popular and cultivated in Asia. The name is enoki.
I am hungry. These are really good, edible mushrooms and I have the taste of all of them in my memory.

New ethics or old suffering

The Xylaria polymorpha fruiting bodies are as like the blackened fingers of a dead man, pointing to the sky, from which he looked in vain for help, for man needs inner strength and ethics to survive the storm he has caused. We are living in an age in which humanity has accumulated an incredible amount of knowledge, and yet consumer society has reduced people to the level of helpless children. The market offers a myriad of products, but hardly a life worth living. I am surrounded by all sorts of conveniences, towering like a wall between me and reality. The online tools we call social apps are actually there to watch us and keep us chained down. Freedom is an illusion. How cruel that isolated people can stare at other people's lives on monitors and be mentally robbed, miserable and eventually driven mad by lies. Social cooperation has made our species the dominant one in the Earth's biosphere. This is a blessing that should have been used wisely all along. As soon as the accumulation and distribution of material wealth, aka capital, appeared, creating the first elites and building the social pyramid, new forms of violence were inevitable.

It is remarkable how late we realised the fatal natural damage caused by our species. There is no unlimited growth in a finite space. I don't know how such a basic law could have escaped the attention of a Homo sapiens(=wise). Another fundamental mistake is to have invented heavenly forgiveness, the etheric space of infinite faith, the afterlife. It was silly, but an understandable release of our anxieties, just wrong. We have created very real problems for ourselves and the crimes and horrors of the 20th century were all committed by human beings. Religion didn't means shit. In fact, religion is also a whip of power violence. It breaks and paralyses weak minds. It's time to acknowledge that the content of consciousness is slipping away and the soul does not exist. It's a sign of poor self-awareness that most people are unable to recognise that their consciousness is a jumble of information that is guaranteed not to be claimed by even an imagined ethereal entity. What a beautiful little lie that the little man is important to a celestial entity, when his life on earth is nothing but gorging and he never stops to think, hey, what the fuck am I doing?!

It's amazing that everyone has a brain, and that many people are unable to use it, even though our brains are much more advanced than the top computers. Of course, it takes a conscious effort to use the brain and it takes a lot of energy to think. However, without thinking there is no planning and without planning what happens is exactly what we have now, a plunge to destruction. With eight billion people, a collapse really is a crisis of apocalyptic proportions. And the little people who cling to the consumer stupor, to addiction, are afraid and unable to face themselves, their actions and take responsibility. Oh, my dears, we've pushed this shit out of ourselves together. We are all responsible. You were born human, you're a member of a race that usurps life on earth, a quasi apex predator, and you say you've done nothing? If you've got a car under your ass, you've just fucked nature. You are hypocritical. It's weird how we like to live, but we don't value life. It's strange that we take pictures of ourselves (our lies) with pleasure, but we would kick in the other person, especially if they have a different skin colour... Strange to talk about god, but avoid the moral part of the teachings by a wide margin.

We are sheep to the slaughter. That is the sad truth. We believe that we are free to act, but we follow our basic instincts, we want to eat and fuck and indulge in as many amenities as possible. The gorging can never end. The Homo sapiens is unable to leap to the next level of development and think, plan and act in millennia. It's easy to think of planet Earth as a spaceship, because that's where we are, in space. In our short lives, which among animals is a very long time, many of us never once wonder about the true horizons. It is part of our tragedy. The wonder is not in an imaginary ethereal space, but here and now. And we eat up this miracle, only to fall into chaos on an apocalyptic scale. Are we sure we are sensible? Please think about my thoughts! We all have an interest in preserving life on Earth and ensuring the long-term survival of our species. What we have now is simply unsustainable. We have to take responsibility for your actions. We cannot run away from ourselves. We cannot deny our sins. And we cannot hand them over to an imaginary celestial entity because we committed them. Ethics is at a higher level of thinking and it is time to take it seriously. Use your brain and become a human being for once, not a puppet pulled by your instincts and fears.  We are human, and our choices do have an impact on the world!

Amazing mushrooms

In the evening I selected some of my tens of thousands of photos for my presentation on Saturday. I have been in the green for more than ten years and have gathered a lot of experience and knowledge. Below I've included one of my videos talking about my favourites. The video is in Hungarian, as I can only speak fluently and enjoyably in my mother tongue. This video was shot at home, on my basic setup, so to speak. I can be even better in front of an audience, because the performer and the audience interact at the level of unspoken, subconscious signals, and that's a plus. In addition, the theme is really colourful and peculiar, because I show the diversity of fruiting bodies. The 12 images show 3 to 3 species from 2 phylums and 4 orders : Basidiomycota Agaricales, Russulales, Auriculariales, Ascomycota Pezizales. All my own photos and all but one are from my hometown and the surrounding area. I am not going to write about mushrooms in English, because the presentation will be in Hungarian. I will personally talk about them to those who honour me and the mushrooms with their presence on Saturday morning.

Good day

I know, it's weird, but I'm obsessed with spending my life doing something useful and it drives me crazy when I can't use my abilities. When I feel useless, my passion very quickly turns into aggression, which I control against myself with terrible routine. I am a professional self-digester. Because what's the point of life if you don't leave something of spiritual value behind? If we do not form a community to worship together the gifts of nature, and celebrate life on earth, and honour each other with meaningful attention, then we are already in hell and we are all damned. It's scarier than anything, even death. I fight against destructive indifference. I cannot give in to the foolish pursuit of pleasure. I am not attracted to material pleasures. I live a simple life, because I am gripped by a greater value.

I am a humanist. I have learned from the horrors of history. I know exactly where lies, ignorance and indifference lead. I value knowledge and have a 200-volume mini home library. I've been interested in fungi since I was a child and I love to talk about them. My enthusiasm is not faked, it's on my face. I am an honest person, although my openness shocks many people. Hungarian society is poisoned by illusions, and honesty is frightening or incomprehensible to many. I can't find a common voice with my own country. Well, that sucks. So I am seriously looking for an escape route. I certainly don't want to wait for the hard part of winter, because the country is becoming unlivable. I want to use my knowledge and skills elsewhere, because I doubt that the world doesn't need me. I am not in a bad mood now, but I am worried about the winter. As a freelance blogger, my livelihood has always been unpredictable, but I'm used to it. However, this year things are deteriorating at an alarming rate.

However, today I concentrated on my chosen task and as a result of many years of practice, it turned out to be a successful day. November showed its best side. The mushroom pickers were delighted with the mushrooms they found and were interested to learn more about them. We also found edible fruiting bodies. I love to perform. It surprises me that I'm so passionate. I am otherwise a peaceful and quiet person, but when I make a decision to love and protect something, the warrior comes out. Yes, one of (wo)man's noblest duties is to protect life. And it bothered me that I was a wimp, that I couldn't buy a good bike because I could cycle all the way to Póstelek. It's not far from the city. A real dark green doesn't even take public transport. I need to rethink my lifestyle and make further changes. Nature is the basis of our lives and we have done a lot of damage to it. It is in our own interest to simplify our lifestyle and give nature more space.
And I am leaving Hungary because I want to grow, to expand my knowledge, to enrich my intellectual heritage.

The suicide nation

I was in a particularly lousy mood yesterday. The life instinct was running on adrenaline all day and I would have run as long as I could. Of course, the habit was stronger and I ran one of my photo routes instead. Then in the evening I watched myself getting free likes for the beautiful photos and didn't shout that I was living on 185 euros a month. Anyway, my fault for not trusting myself or others and not learning more. Going is better than another year in Hungary, in a national digestive system that feeds off its inhabitants and brings out the worst in everyone. Yesterday I wrote a list of reasons why my country is a hopeless place.

In the 1970s, the party functionaries of the Kádár regime came up with the idea that the country would become a host to the assembly plants of Western companies. The communist descendants carried out the plan. Rather than following the example of other countries that had emerged from poverty, that knowledge was the way out, the freeloaders imposed a work-based society on the population. What is particularly nauseating is that with a southern slave plantation mentality, they are recruiting guest workers from poor countries. The Hungarian people are being duped by lies broadcast from the occupied public media. The public media serves the whole of society, but in Hungary it only pushes the lies of the Orange criminal organisation into the heads of the already uneducated twenty-four hours a day. Those who cannot access the web or use it wisely will be lost forever, not only mentally but also physically. The Hungarians look particularly scary in winter! Their faces are grey and wrinkled rubber casts.

About three million people have completely lost touch with reality. Yesterday, I was very angry because one of these blind man was telling me that Putin had a very good reason for attacking Ukraine. Even the revolution of '56 and the Soviet occupation failed to drill into stupid heads that the Russian is not a friend, but an eastern conqueror, and that he will never give up this bad habit because he is crazy. Hungarian fools are eager to lie down in front of the boots of the invaders and madmen and lick their feet, because they are nothing, weak and they manufacture an ideology for themselves. Conspiracy theories are rampant. Because I'm smart enough to doubt everything and therefore always trying to add new knowledge to my existing knowledge base, I'm immune to conspiracy theories. I watch in amazement as the nonsense rages on. Then my mind jerks, as if I've been kicked, and when I come to my senses, the life instinct screams again, run!

For ten years, the criminal organisation has been pushing in the public media how successful the country is, how we are the engine of the EU, how we are going to reform the Union, which is in decline. This winter, most public institutions are closed or only open for short periods. The Orange criminal organization spent the money, and now that the EU has finally turned off the money tap, it turns out that the success was a lie! The truth is that the communist cadres were too greedy for free money, they became parasites. If they knew anything, their knowledge was invalid in the 21st century. Annuity-hunting, the worship of money has poisoned the whole of society. Those who have access to capital income can easily laugh at those who are forced to live on wages. There is a huge gap between capital and wage income, but it is also a global phenomenon. People who work often literally die from working too hard, for example from a heart attack.

Those who do intellectual work are faced with the fact that knowledge is worthless to the orange criminal organisation, which is doing well by keeping the country in terror, sucking people's taxes, employing third-country guest workers, serving the German and Chinese big business. The Orange regime is disconnected from the Hungarian people and no longer cares about the fate of the people. The trouble is compounded by the fact that people don't care about other people, everyone is chasing their own troubles and to make it less painful, they chase their pleasures more and more furiously. A symptom of insanity is a shopping frenzy, buying the most expensive smartphone, for example. They flash expensive phones to cover up their own shortcomings of intellect and character.

The common good, the common purpose of society and morality are lost. Nobody talks about these things. There is no public discourse because the public media is the propaganda channel of the Orange criminal organisation. I have watched the worrying process of decline over the last thirty years and I do not want to waste another year of my life on it. Unfortunately, I really have not paid attention to being a valuable commodity in the global meat market. The world is full of unnecessary people and instructive tragedies. I'll stop here because I'm starting to despair again. Panic is useless as it blocks higher mental functions and one of my strengths is my intellect. There are four forces that one can turn to in times of trouble, many people think that money is the only force, they are wrong because there is knowledge, people and nature. In fact I am a strong (wo)man and I will not follow my people of birth to destruction. There are great things in the world and I want to do good things.