Mosses and Lichens

Spent the weekend at a field study centre to learn about mosses and lichens. We were a very small group and gelled well. The evenings and overnights were a bonus - hello P if you've decided to look in ;)

One day we were on a Sphagnum Bog. The other we were in a Forestry plantation, but quite an old one with some lovely wet, green and mossy hollows. I learned a lot, especially about lichens which I hadn't looked at closely before.

Still in a dream about the weekend. I'll be living off it it for some time to come.  For the green things and for much more.

A Secluded Cove

I had to go to a town on the coast some distance away, so I got up early and got my business done quickly. By mid-morning I was on the beach and heading away from the town under the cliffs. I'd timed this visit so I'd be doing this a couple of hours after high tide. The waves come right up to the cliffs in places so I could only do it when the tide was going out. It was slow going over the rocky shore but soon I saw what I was looking for. A stream was running out of an inlet in the rocks. This leads back to a narrow valley running up a cleavage in the cliffs.

A little way in it broadens out and the steep slopes on the sides are covered in trees and the floor at the moment is a thick bed of snowdrops. It's only possible to get here from the beach, and then only when the tide is out, so I couldn't stay long. But I felt privileged to be there and gave my thanks to the spirits of the place and the nymph of the stream. Further up the valley narrows even more and no human can easily get there. In the distance, up there somewhere, I could hear a woodpecker hammering away. I listened for a bit, then walked back down to the beach.The waves were crashing in onto the rocks but still far enough away for me to get safely back.

I still had time to take a closer look at the rocks which must be compressed mud because you can see the fossilised impressions of pre-historic worm shapes twisted into the surface of them. This is all I need for a history and a geography lesson. All the knowledge that matters.

A good day out.

Mosses

They said today would be dry between two rainy days, and it was for most of the time but here in the hills grey clouds drifted across the sky and this afternoon, and for about ten minutes, a fine spray of rain fell and I raised my face to it, glad to receive its blessing.

I spent the morning in the forest that clothes the steep slopes looking at mosses. There aren’t many flowers at this time of year but the mosses are bright and green and luxuriant in the damp woods where water runs down the slopes and keeps them wet. I identified several species. Here and there I saw the leaves of wood sorrel which in the Spring will have white flowers with green veins in the petals hanging from them. But for now it is just the leaves, like clover, but a brighter green and sharp with the oxalic acid they contain.

Up above the forest there are narrow paths running along the steep hillside. These were once leets, channels to carry water from a lake to the old mine workings where the water turned huge wooden wheels. These are all gone now and it is hard to believe that this was a place of industry in the 19th century. It is quiet but for the calls of buzzards and kites and now the leets are filled in and make paths for people like me to wander my lonely way along them and feel that soft sprinkling of rain on my face.

Wind and Rain

A change in the weather. Warmer but very windy. The trees all swaying and creaking in the wind. I sat in the wood and let the sounds and the gusts of wind crash all around me.

All the dry brown leaves on the floor rustled in the wind around my feet buried deep in a drift of them. Sitting out among the trees I feel close to the weather and feel good about sharing it with the trees. Then the rain came in on the winds driving through the trees.

I sat wrapped in my waterproof coat with the hood up over my head. I felt like I was a wild creature in a shell or in a den with the wind and the rain up against it. But for me this is the place to be, with the wind's song  in the woods.