Interesting that one of the items in your third pic somewhat resembles a skull, arcy.

ole joyful

Puffball

arcy, is the tree to which all of those (oak) leaves belong pretty close? Because those mushrooms are performing an essential task by forming a mycorrhizal relationship with the roots of the tree.

Mycorrhizae relationships are one of Nature's finest and most beneficial creations.......so not "gross", but beautiful. The magic is happening under the soil surface 24/7; the fruiting bodies are just a welcome seasonal sign that their mycelium are hard at work on behalf of the trees.

A collection of Worm shells, Ceriths, Whelk, Olive, Augers, etc. found in the wrack line left after high tide. Lots of folks ignore these deposits of small, usually broken shells, instead seeking larger prey elsewhere. Sanibel, FL.

Proof people can change. For years I was afraid/hated spiders. I still don't "like" them but this guy rode in on an orchid and he's welcome to live in the basement (just not on me). He kinda looks like an eye on a dinosaur head, lol.

I took a picture of this crab claw while walking on the beach.

I'm going to assume this qualifies... I found this slug when I was raking leaves out of my flower bed.

For some reason, I can't get my picture to post in the above comment.

Adellabedella, I once stepped on a slug about that size -- barefoot!!! it was gross.

Rhizo, thanks for explaining about the mushrooms. I'm old, but I still enjoy imagining another "world" going on under mushrooms/toad stools. So it's really happening. :)

I have always loved observing spiders, snakes and any other interesting creatures. I guess it comes from growing up at the very edge of the woods and having my desk looking out at a stone wall, where I often observed snakes on the wall and all sorts of critters as we wandered in the woods. The orb weavers are probably some of my favorites. This is a Black and Yellow Garden Spider.

I have never heard of chitin before. I think this qualifies.

rhizo--that's very interesting to know. We live on a 2.5 acre stand of 100 yr old burr oaks so yes all those mushrooms are close to/above oak roots. We have been here 22 years and this has never happened before. There used to be two other oaks in the front lawn where the bulk of the mushrooms were. They came down a few years ago now. Perhaps it's the roots saying their last goodbye?

Chitin, pronounced KI-tin, is similar to your fingernails...it's the hard substance that the body of the insect is made up of...what they call an exoskeleton as unlike us, insects are hard on the outside with soft parts in the middle. Our skeletons are on the inside covered with muscles and tissues and skin.

So while snails and mollusks have the hard chitin, the shell-less slug does not.