Today we have the last of Avalus’ photos from the natural burial forest, ending fittingly with a view of the forest itself. These burial forests are not only natural, but also safe and life sustaining. They’re one of nature’s best ways of recycling and there’s a growing demand for this type of burial option. One of the other big benefits of natural burial is that it is much more cost effective than the traditional care offered by the funeral industry of today.
My thanks to Avalus for his wonderful tour. I’ve enjoyed walking through the forest with him and seeing the myriad of fungi that grow here.
A “Hexen-Röhrling” (lit: witches-boletes), probably a Rubroboletus rubrosanguineus. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Hexenröhrling detail. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Marking a nearly gone treestump. ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Kiefernrinde: The bark of pine trees, as it falls apart into thin scales.©Avalus, all rights reserved
Histortrees ©Avalus, all rights reserved
Beautiful mushrooms and a beautiful place to decompose.
I have a bad joke about decomposing…
I love the angle and focus in the first photo, it’s clear the mushroom is the star but you can see the vibrant forest background and it’s wonderful. Also the photo of the pine bark is quite eloquent, like an old book in a forgotten language, speaking to the forest…
@ ^ rq : Seconded and beat me to it. The perspective where you seem to be looking up from the ground is awesome. Love these photos and fascinating fungi though an area I really don’t know enough about.
FWIW found a wonderful children’s book (though adults especially those interested in botany and zoology will love as well) this year called Leaf Litter Exploring the Mysteries of a Hidden World’ by former ranger Rachel Tonkin (Angus & Robertson, 2006) focusing on that leaf litter layer and the lifeforms living and being broken down in it in Australia esp. Victoria but many also present locally for me which I’d highly recommend.
http://static.harpercollins.com/harperimages/ommoverride/teacher_guide_leaf_litter.pdf
Beautiful and factually accurate and exquisitely detailed down to the point where you can go through it with a hand lens and keep finding details that are just extraordinary. Reckon some here would really enjoy this marvellous work of art even though its very much Aussie and may not be relevant for those in different continents and climate zones.
@rg and SteoR: You can also see my mother and my grandmother (the not catholic one) in the background :D
@StevoR: Thanks for sharing, thats a cool thing!
I forgot to add to the last picture: note how the three trees are bent sideways? It took me a while to realize that they had to make way to some trees that grew in between them. But there trees in the middle are now dead and their stumps nearly decayed. But the bent in the living trees stays.
I think there is a nice metaphore in there, somewhere, how beings leave an imprint that does not vanish so fast.
Damn it!I meant rq above, not rg … Sorry!
Also, share your joke, please :D
Short version: some guy is taking a shortcut through a historical cemetery one night, and he hears some music that sounds oddly familiar and somehow backwards, but there’s no musicians nearby -- no funerals, as it’s quite late. A bit freaked out, he goes to see the caretaker, and tells him there’s either hooligans around, or the place is haunted. The caretaker replies, Oh, no, don’t worry, happens all the time -- that’s just Beethoven, decomposing.
@rq, #6: LOL groan…
What a beautiful forest. I think it’s really great that the mushrooms do so well there and what a variety! A very peaceful place to wander.
If Beethoven had only ever written single copies of his symphonies and then buried the sheets in forest soil, they’d have been destroyed by decomposers.
(And literally nobody would’ve ever heard most of the pieces)
Yes, a very bad joke. It made me de-drink tea from my nose. :D