28 January 2009

Mosses and lichens

Rain again today — that's the prediction. It hasn't started yet, so I have time to take Callie for a long walk, I hope. It's nearly time to go. We're just waiting for it to get light outside.

Lichens on a brick out in the vineyard

Yesterday afternoon I went out with the dog and I started noticing how much moss is growing everywhere. And lichens too. At least I think that's what the yellow stuff is.

Moss in the back yard

We have a lot of lichens in many of our trees. We looked it up. It's not parasitic like mistletoe. It lives in a symbiotic relationship with the trees, so it's nothing to worry about. That's good, because we didn't want to have to start spraying a lot of lichen-icide everywhere.

An especially healthy colony of mosses

The moss grows on stones, live and dead tree trunks, and directly on the ground out in the vineyard. It grows on the low stone "wall" we have around our house. In summer, you can spray it off with a good strong blast of water from the garden hose. Sometimes I do that when the weather is nice.

Moss on dead tree trunks out in the woods

Tomorrow will be a major strike day in France. They are billing it as « un jeudi noir » on the TV news. Public transit, the post office, and schools will be running with skeleton crews, if at all. It will be a good day for staying home, or taking a walk. I think I'll do both.

Moss on the ground out in the vineyard

A joke from this morning's news: What's the difference between a banker and a pizza? A pizza can still feed a family of four.

4 comments:

  1. I love that joke! I am a banker and luckily I only have a family of 3 to feed!

    -Dana

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  2. Great shots of moss. That especially healthy batch reminds me of anemones and other sea life under the ocean.

    Hmmm... now I want pizza! xoxo

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  3. Speaking of amazing photos, check this out:

    Photo

    An almost 1500 megapixel panoramic shot of the inauguration, from the Capitol to the mall. Pan and zoom for closeups: you can almost make out the notes on the Marine Band's sheet music, and the scowl on 43's face is clear as a bell.

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  4. A photo to enjoy and play with- I love it! I think I found myself at the first jumbo-tron on the left. I was wearing a purple rain suit which makes me stand out from the crowd.

    The photo must have high resolution to see the scowl on '43's face. Poor guy, no one would like to be compared to a man with as many talents as Obama.

    Obama doesn't have to say he's a uniter, not a divider, the unbelievable crowd demonstates Obama's ability to bind us together.

    ReplyDelete

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