Becaws It's Hallowe'en

Day 18: We're a bit short on cornfields around here, but Happy Hallowe'en from Crow!

Microtome

Day 17: When preparing specimens for viewing through a compound microscope, tissue should be sliced as thinly as possible. This is extremely difficult to do by hand, although it is possible to obtain a workable section of soft material such as a lichen apothecium. A better solution is to use a microtome. The tissue is mounted in dental wax or paraffin if it is too small to be placed directly in the central chamber and then a slice is made with a straight razor to remove the end. By turning the dial at the base of the microtome, the mounted tissue can be advanced in 1-micron increments. With practice, it is possible to make cuts as thin as 1 micron. This will allow you to view the cellular structure of botanical specimens.

Help Or Hazard?

Day 16: With decent weather for a few days and nothing on my schedule, I've been able to get out to enjoy some autumn hiking, including a six-mile loop in Pack Forest which took me up the Reservoir Trail and down the more popular Hugo Peak Trail. The Reservoir Trail tends to be quite muddy lower down, and in an effort to provide better footing, Pack has seen fit to mount 2 x 4 fencing on the surface of the plank "bridges" which span the soggier areas. While this installation may be marginally better than a slick board when wet, even a light frost renders it treacherous. I have gone "skating" across the grid many a time, even when taking utmost care. Ordinarily, I would not contemplate stepping off the official path, but here, my safety takes precedence over other considerations and like most other people who hike these trails, I will walk alongside the boards, preferring muddy boots to possible injury. However good Pack's intentions were, this innovation goes into the category of "it seemed like a good idea at the time," and needs reevaluation.

Usnea Longissima, Mother Nature's Garland

Day 15: For me, the main attraction at Rainey Creek is a tree festooned with Usnea longissima, the lichen I call "Mother Nature's Garland." Its semi-official common name is "Methuselah's Beard," presumably derived from the great lengths it sometimes attains. Unlike other Usneas, it does not form branches off the central cord; it may grow up to 10 feet according to Brodo, but after tracing one strand back a full six, I'm inclined to think that may be a low estimate.

Longissima only thrives where the air is free of pollutants, a factor which may also account for the healthier-than-average population of mosquitoes along Rainey Creek. From the bridge where the Usnea Tree stands, the view shows other trees equally wreathed, but only immediately alongside the stream channel. I have found other wisps of this graceful lichen further from the creek, struggling for survival where they may have been dropped by a bird carrying potential nesting material. This Usnea occurs in other local areas, but to date, I have found none as lush as those along Rainey Creek...as good a reason as any to pay it a visit when the skeeters aren't flying!

Bridge Over Rainey Creek

Day 14: Rainey Creek is not a place you want to visit during mosquito season, but during early spring or mid-autumn, the walk to the bridge can be a delightful diversion. However, if you go during hunting season, you should be advised to wear orange. The brush is thick in places, and you wouldn't want your movement to be mistaken for that of an elk or pheasant. The first half-mile follows an old road, but once you've crossed the bridge, muddy trails take you in various directions. Today, I explored a branch I'd never followed and as enticing as it was to think about continuing on when the path began to climb after a short ways, I had other things on my agenda and decided to leave it for another visit when I can make botany a priority. That said, I was pleased to find the Usnea Tree doing well...but that's for tomorrow's post.

Ohop Creek Deception

Day 13: Just look at those puffy clouds and that pretty blue sky! You'd think it was summer on Ohop Creek...until you look at the bottom photo which shows that typical Pacific Northwest "white sky" during a brief break in the rain. Yes, the clouds came out of a box, i.e., they're a filter in my photo processing software.

Today needed all the outside help it could get. Gloomy, wet, dismal, and me with a list of things to do which I'd rather have postponed indefinitely if that was in my character. I am guilty of having put one off for a number of months (I only go to the doctor as an alternate to booking a mortician), but even that is behind me now, and with nothing more than a "take it easy for a while" caution to see me out the door. My driver's license is good for another six years, and I have a stockpile of millet flour and molasses which should last me at least 12 months. Even if the summer skies are a deception, little Ohop Creek brightened the hastily-revised agenda for this dreary and somewhat tedious day.

End-of-Season Report

Day 12: It's the time of the year when we're working on writing those end-of-season reports, and the statistics from my garden are in. I am happy to announce that with one exception, everything I planted last spring and summer has survived and appears to be sufficiently established to weather the winter. The one fatality was a maidenhair fern which was rather feeble at the time of purchase. The second one is doing fine.

This mum wintered over from 2015 in the strawberry jar despite numerous hard freezes. While it's not the first mum I've had return from the dead the following year, it happens infrequently enough to be notable. It provided me with colour throughout the summer, bushing out over the sedums which otherwise fill the planter. It will be interesting to see if I get a third year from it. For a buck and a half, that can't be beat!