The living and - the living

It turned into another ridiculously balmy day so that by early afternoon I had to shed clothes. Overnight rain had made the ground soggy but benefited fungi which are springing up all over the woods. Not edible ones unfortunately but they  are all interesting nonetheless. These mazegill brackets clamped on to the stump of a goat willow indicate that the fungus is consuming the lignin remaining in the rotten timber. Nothing it wasted in nature: the living trees above will some day succumb a similar process of decay. If not we wouldn't be able to move for fallen trunks and branches.