A Mushy Missive and a Mossy Meander

Let's start February off with a BANG! 

A new Blog Header and the first completion of the month.

Design - "February" Flip it - A Year With Charm

Designer - Lizzie Kate

Fabric - 28 count Country French Cafe Mocha linen

Fibers - GAST - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 30 January 2012

Completed 31 January 2012

I think we should title this walk "A Mossy Meander".

Our unnaturally mild weather continues this week.  No need for gloves or mittens.  Just a light coat or sweater and a good pair of boots.

My mother was the trail-blazer for this walk, and we followed a deer path (proof later) along the west side of our property.  This old stump is about at the end of its cycle - the interior has totally decayed, and just the bark and outer layer remain. 

A Mossy Meander - Yes, moss and lichen - this looks like a photo from outer space.  The tall lichen are called Cladonia Ecmocyna Lichen - Pixie Lichen (Cladonia ecmocyna) It is widespread throughout the Pacific Northwest, and found in soil, humus or moss. It is prevalent in exposed to lightly shaded habitats  

This lichen looks like a sea anemone.  I need a lichenologist to help with the identification.

And I need to take a walk with a muscologist - someone who studies mosses. I think the moss is Broom Moss (Dicranum scoparium).

 I love this photo - the bright green moss and the red capped lichens.  The amazing thing is that this photo and the two above it were all taken of the same decaying stump - such diversity in minutiae.

This stump has several small symmetrical holes...who? 

Remember, I said we were following a deer path - hoof prints.

More moss...

...and more moss...

...and yet more moss...

...and still more moss!

I've featured this lichen before - Lungwort Lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria). It is commonly found on trees in humid forests, both coniferous and deciduous, at

lower elevations.

  

And leave you today with...moss!