We’ve received a lot of rain over the last two weeks. On Wednesday when I got home and was making my rounds through the gardens, this cute mushroom jumped out at me from under a tree on the hillside:

The next day its “umbrella” had unfurled.

And one day later, the umbrella was turning brown.

We were out of town for the weekend, so I didn’t see what happened next. All I know is that on Monday evening, this is what I found:

…which makes me very interested in finding another one so I can watch it every day until the end to see what happens at each step.

Though I can guess that it’s some type of inky cap mushroom, based on the disintegration behavior, DO NOT take this as confirmation or denial for identification purposes. I am way too nervous about mushrooms’ potential for being poisonous, so I’ll just enjoy them in nature and leave my mushroom-eating to what I find in the store.