I'm Liken Lichen...

My outings are few and far between at the moment. We are busy with scheduled visits from the Hospice folks, deliveries of medications, and crappy weather. [I'm still trying to figure out some sort of schedule]

I did get out for a bit with Charlie and we went hunting for some little things. I went to the creek to look for Lichen and mosses.

By the rock vents above this section of the creek, there were still icicles hanging from the rocks above Snakeskin Liverwort. That has to be the coolest of all names for a Liverwort.

Snakeskin Liverwort Lichen loves cool, damp, shady places. It loves growing by this rock vent of cold air. Even in the driest of summers, it is damp here.

I found an oak limb that had a colorful array of lichens on it.

I don't know all the names of the lichens on this limb, but I thought it made such a colorful patchwork of colors.

March is the perfect month to search for Lichen
if you are lucky, you can find one branch

with quite a variety on them.

Mosses on a log

Even with a record temperature of 79 F, we still had ice in the valley.  Charlie cooled his feet.

One of the drawbacks of a nice graveled driveway is...raking up the gravel to put it back on the driveway.

I take it a bit at a time especially since NOAA has given us a Winter Weather Advisory that could give us rain and then some snow or up to 8" of heavy wet snow. Trying to do it all at once is a miserable long job.

I could hire a yard sweeper to come out and do it, but that could cost the minimum of $200. Anyway, that was the rate last year when I considered it. With the economy looking a bit iffy, I'm not willing to spend the extra money just to make things easy right now. 

If we get significant snow again, we'll get another plow and more gravel will be piled in the yard so I will leave my piles for when the snows are all done.

While waiting and waiting hours for a delivery from FedEx, I decided to do some more creative photography. 

Other news updates---->

We have Robins, Redwing Blackbirds, and Blue birds in our yard! 

[This may be the first year that I haven't gone to KVR to look for water fowl and and other migrating birds. I may have to see if I can 'shoot' some nearer the house]

...and I am waiting for an opportunity to go look for the first Flower of Spring. The Skunk Cabbage.

Colors in December & Winter's Solstice

I do love the fact that the month of December gives me an opportunity to enjoy tons of beautiful lights indoors and so many things to practice Still Life with.

The felted snowman and the little ceramic tree were items I used to decorate my MIL's room when she was in the Nursing Home.

Gnomes. Well, since I live in a Nordic part of Wisconsin, we all love Gnomes. You can't go anywhere without seeing Gnomes and Trolls in gift stores.

I am searching for a gnarly looking troll to add to my collection.

I did get out for some hiking this week. I went out with one thing in mind. To find some December Colors.

Along Old Hwy 131 at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve --> Highbush Cranberry!

Along a deer trail at home on a gloomy day ----> Multiflora Rose 

When I got down to the creek bed I sat on rocks and looked for some teenie tiny things. This log lays across the rocks and the place where the creek flows in wetter years.

So I got up close and personal with the moss. 

Powderhorn Lichen. Those tips should turn bright red and 'flower' in February!

This grey lichen was found on an old oak log. The tree had been blown down late in the year in 2018. It is near the Powderhorn lichen I photographed above but a different log.

A common name is Rosette Lichen. I think. Since I am no expert, this is a pretty good guess.

Mosses and Lichens are pretty easy to spot in the winter since there are no leaves to hide them!

Happy Winter's Solstice!

It was too overcast to enjoy a beautiful sunrise, so I will give you this one from a few years ago!

November beauties

I'm still trying to make sure that November will not be that bleh month. I'm working hard at it by spending time outdoors and searching for things that are beautiful.

Usually by now we have a first snowfall and the ice is forming on the grasses in the creek bottom. Not so this year.  The mornings are frosty and the days are tolerable.

On our last very gloomy and overcast day, I decided to go out and look for something. Anything.

These trees I think are Hop Hornbeam trees which are also known as Ironwood.

Every tree speaks to me
fluttering from an Autumn Tree
~~Emily Bronte

I saw it as a plain old tree with startling leaves in the understory of the woods. Some of these trees are low enough that the winds don't take away all of their leaves in the winter. 

From there I started to hunt for little things. You know, that stuff you step over when you go for a walk.

The mossy log that shines with a brilliant green now that summer has passed into recent memory. 

The lichen with moss on dead wood.

The browned leaves of ferns that glow orange in the late afternoon sun.

I came home after that hike and felt I'd given November a pretty good effort but found it a bit wanting.

I came home and thought about this season again. I checked my email and had an update from OM Systems [formerly Olympus Cameras]. Since I am an OM user, I get emails for different events and 'how to' videos that explain how to get more use out of your camera.

The email was titled 'it's in our Nature'.
Specifically it addressed Kacho Fugetsu which is an old Japanese philosophy that translates loosely into Flower, Moon, Wind, and Bird. 

OM's philosophy is to go out and do continuous self discovery through nature.

Of course I know it is advertising and promotion of their products. Discover yourself through photography.

They had four little videos to watch. I was rather inspired by the words of the video. They stirred something in me that made me want to go out and find something intensely wonderful with my camera.

From the video... a few sentences 

I am everywhere...

above you in the canopy
and nestled right at 
your 
feet...

For you 
I drape the world 
in splendor
embellishing every valley
and forest
with marvels hoping that you
upon your arrival

capture my essence...

Link: Flower

I ended up with some motivation to go find something unique.

This is not my normal work, but it is a place I am  at the moment to trying something different out to see how it feels.

It combines a longer lens used in the sense of a macro lens and creating a depth of field that gives the viewer one thing to look at. That item can be mundane in a way, but unusual in how it was photographed. The best days for this kind of photography are heavily overcast days.

Tiny Fungi:

Spent Golden Rod through brush:

A dead fleabane flower in the pasture:

Rain droplets on Powderhorn Lichen:

There is so much to see out there before the snowfall will cover it up and then I'll have to change up my focus again.

That's okay, it is the best way to stay fresh and explore.

Fog droplets and Squatching along

Who can pass up a wonderfully misty afternoon? As the fog rolled in and looked absolutely yucky and nasty, Charlie and I took off for a walk in the woods looking for droplets of rain.

I'm going to have to start carrying a magnifying glass, these were so tiny!

I found Black Earth Tongues on an old rotting oak log!

... and here they are!

Very odd looking fungi and I suspect they may have grown last year? I'm not sure, I don't know enough about the world of fungi and mosses to say I know these things. I find them fascinating though.

So you may be bored at seeing moss, lichen, and fungi by now but here is just one more.

Squatch is looking for a new home. He feels this one is too wet.

This one too muddy.

And the hollow in this tree has a mushroom in it so for now he'll just munch along and consider his options.

I like Lichen

The winter doldrums are sometimes hard to shake and after days of being stuck inside, I've been getting out again.

Whew. Yesterday's excursion was just an amble through the woods and valley to see 'stuff'. I wanted to go explore Lichen.
The book I got said it can be found in the winter rather easily. 

I really like this book and could call it Lichen for Dummies. It is separated by where you can find certain Lichen. Trees, ground, rocks, for example.

So I headed out to the woods on snowshoes which was a good choice. 

And I stopped by one of the first trees I saw.

Next, I need to learn how to identify trees much better. I pretty much am clueless unless I have hubby with me. He can glance at a tree and tell you what it is just by looking at the bark and the shape. 

The moss book is much more difficult. I think the writer assumes that the reader already understands all of the biology and taxonomy behind plants. I don't, but I can learn.

I was pretty excited to try something new. 

Foliose Lichen. [Lichen having lobed leaf like shape]

I didn't know that Lichen is not a singular plant. It is composed of two dissimilar organisms. Lichen is a unique form of Fungus and Algae. The two organisms work together. Tree Dwelling Lichens.
There are between 14 thousand and 20 thousand species. So uffdah! I will only look for general ones!

Lichens don't hurt trees. They can grow on the ground and grow on rocks. I can't wait to get back to Black Hawk Rock in the KVR and study all the lichens I've seen there.

Do I know what I am looking at yet? Nope. Just delving into it. 

Tree trunk with a crack in it and lichens of different kinds growing on it. I recognize the 'leaf' pattern of the most common type of lichen. 

White lichen and moss below. Did the lichen 'eat' the moss? Or is this just dried up?
I don't know.

So much to learn!

Cropped for a closer look.

When I got to the creek to search for mosses and more lichen, I got sidetracked.

Guess who? The Robin crowd!

I crept up on them and they flew off. So I squatted down on my snowshoes and waited. The Robins came back and busied themselves along the edges of the creek.

I really think this bunch has wintered here in the valley. 

I realized my hands were getting cold and I'd dropped my mittens somewhere along the way. 

I found the mittens at the second tree I'd stopped to look at. What a duh moment!

But the mitten retrieval took me past an old oak tree that had been blown down about 3 years ago. It was covered in exciting 'stuff'.

I put the mittens in my pocket and pulled out the Oly Tough camera with the super macro mode [this is what I used on the other photos]. I should have taken those shots with the auto focus stack, they would have been clearer. [Live and learn right?]

Cool white black lichen. I can classify it as a Crustose Lichen:

Very odd looking. I just thought it was some sort of slime moldy thing. Did you know that slime mold falls into the fungi category? Nah, me neither, but it does.

Last but not least. I think this is some sort of fungi growing on the lichen. 

They look like creepy little turds or something. They are less than 2cm across so you can have an idea just how small they are.

And for the last of the discoveries.

Unidentified orange 'stuff'.

This was growing in small cracks in the wood. So I may assume it is dead lichen or dead fungi of some sort.

I do love mysteries like this to solve. Tiny things in the woods that we don't even notice because we are always looking for the Big Picture.

I can't wait to get out and find some more curious things.