Journal archives for January 2012

January 20, 2012

Brrrr...

I put on my rubber boots and wandered outside and heard the sounds of melting snow and ice crashing out of the trees. It was raining pretty hard so I brought my waterproof camera with me. I went out back where the row of ornamental eastern sugar maples grow on railroad ave in shelton. All kinds of wondeful lichens grow on sugar maples.

I saw that the same moss that fell out of a nearby liliac bush, likes to grow on these sugar maples too. I took pictures of moss and lichens until I could no longer use my fingers.

Posted on January 20, 2012 10:51 PM by mossy mossy | 0 comments | Leave a comment

January 28, 2012

Gone Fishing

Today I decided to go for a nature walk in a sticking little logging town . I brought a medium sized child with me. It was very sunny and cold outside and the smell of wood smoke hung thick in the air. Our walk was along a road but it has been so long since they paved the road that it might be fair to call it a trail for now.

The official Washington Air Quality Advisory notice said our air quality was 80 or "moderate". They claim that it is safe for children to breathe when the air quality is 100 or below. It felt like the air quality was getting worse as we walked and it might well be at 100 by now.

On our walk my daughter found some cold mud puddles and began fishing with a maple stick. She caught lots of fish, each of which I was required to identify. In this order she caught the following types of "fish": Douglas-fir, Scot’s broom, 2x6 Douglas-fir, wire, and finally a “way too big to take home fish”.

The forest looks much thinner since the ice storm, fallen branches and fallen trees that have been bucked up into fire wood can be seen everywhere. Some power lines are still hanging low. Some small snow pockets remained where they were insulated by a thick mat of recently fallen Douglas-fir twigs and needles. Other than that all the snow is gone.

I saw a lot of different mosses and some I could even identify to genus. I think I saw polytrichum, buckiella and dendrolasia. I found lots of cute little moss cushions growing on a cement wall. My daughter excitedly pointed out the ones with sporophytes. I noticed that the same moss at the top of the wall was wet and green while the moss growing on the sides of the wall was dark and dry. Additionally the moss on the top of the wall was growing in mats while the same moss on the side of the wall was growing in cushions.

All of the different mosses on the top of the wall were generally producing more sporophytes than the mosses on the side of the wall.

As we headed back home two yappy canis lupis came out and half heartedly threatend to kill us. I menaced them with a giant piece of Lobaria pulmonaria found under a nearby maple tree. I think it was working, but then the owner of the canis lupis came and called them off before I could find out if they really were afraid of Lobaria.

My daughter brought home a way too big to come in the house "stick bug". The stick bug was giant with smooth reddish bark that made it look very much like an Acer macrophyllum maple sapling.

Posted on January 28, 2012 12:48 AM by mossy mossy | 6 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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