I generally think of March and November as very dull months. I call them the brown months, months without color and excitement. Dull so darned dull.
Winter brown. This is the neighbor's road up on the ridge surrounded by cropland.
See?
A few weeks ago I was browsing some new books to read. A friend had recommended Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. So I was just looking through the titles and came upon the moss and lichen books. A comment was made that even in the dead of winter, one can find moss and lichen.
That was a bit of an Ah-Hah! moment. Just as finding fungi are incredibly fun and interesting, I thought Why not Lichen and Moss? Boy was I in for it. Moss is so hard to ID without a microscope. However I am beginning to see the tiny differences in the plants and learn where different mosses do grow, as well as Lichen.
And best of all? I have found color in March!
Sunday morning Charlie and I went to the cropland on the ridge to watch the sun arrive. Bringing along coffee to sip on was a great idea!
The day was supposed to get very windy with wind gusts up to 40 mph. So after morning chores and breakfast, I set out to catch some morning light in the woods below the house.
I couldn't get over the beautiful colors highlighted by the morning sun.
Then there was the pretty blue-green colors of the Lichen I found...
I think I can safely say that I think I recognized a moss called ... Common name: American Tree Moss. Scientific name [generalized]: Climacium americanum.
Of course there are multiple kinds of this moss.
I find it easily this time of year because it is so brilliantly green when everything surrounding it is brown. I found a several patches of it above the spring on a north facing hillside. The morning sun lit up the green like a beacon.
And then I doubt myself of course when I find two similar but different mosses.
It sure looks like I need to really learn quite a bit more. No one said this was going to be easy. But it sure is fun.
For those who like Fungi, I was sent a fascinating video on Fungi by a fungi friend on Flickr --- say that 3 times fast!
Stephen Axford: How fungi changed my life
It is a 30 minute video with time lapse photography and some of Stephen's most incredible photos of fungi all over the tropical world. It was interesting enough that even my husband watched it with me.
Now on to mundane things. Chores and pasture cleaning for today.