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.