Sweethearts

Day 111: At the opposite end of the spectrum from irritating Blackbirds, annoying Starlings and disgusting Band-tailed Pigeons, we have endearing Evening Grosbeaks, personable Chickadees and of course the sweethearts: the Canada (Grey) Jays. Highly intelligent and very sociable, Perisoreus canadensis is well-known to backcountry hikers as the "camp robber" for its penchant for stealing food right off the table or out of the hand, but the term is applied lovingly (for the most part, at least) and visitors often defy Park regulations to have the privilege of a Grey take tidbits from an open palm. Their call is a plaintive mew which plucks at the heartstrings: "I'm starving. Please feed me!" and is hard to deny. Fortunately for me, a family of Greys discovered my feeders a few years ago and have been coming more and more frequently, albeit irregularly, to the yard. They are not yet confident in approaching a human at this altitude, which is probably wise, so with this species, I do not encourge contact as I do with the smaller birds.

Thoroughly Obnoxious

Day 110: There are very few birds I actively dislike. Band-tailed Pigeons probably top the list, but Red-Winged Blackbirds and Starlings (above) are currently running neck-and-neck for second place. Blackbirds can be both persistent and aggressive, and I suppose a more appropriate word for my feelings regarding them would be that of "irritating" or even "infuriating," where Starlings fall into the category of "annoying" and generally obnoxious. The Starlings fly off when I open the door. The Blackbirds stay in the tree even when I'm right under it, clapping my hands and shouting profanities. All three species drive the other birds away purely due to their numbers. They come en masse, descending on the feeders in a cloud, and not even the jays (Canada or Steller's) will stand up to them unless it's one-on-one. That said, of the three, Starlings with their speckles have a certain charm (not enough to soften my sentiments, though). One or two, I can abide, but not a mob.

Woolly-backed Chickadee, Poecile Lana

Day 109: Closely related to the Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Black-capped Chickadees who are regular visitors to my yard, a single Woolly-capped Chickadee (Poecile lana) perched on a mossy fence rail long enough that I was able to make a positive ID. This specimen was slightly narrower in the body than the Chessies, but otherwise, its markings were quite similar and could easily mislead a casual observer. However, Woollies forage for insects in moss by scratching with their coppery-coloured talons in a "jump-back" maneuver reminiscent of the Spotted Towhee. This behaviour distinguishes them from Chessies when it is possible to observe the bird feeding.

Now I'm sure none of you were fooled by my description, but just in case, here's the disclaimer: my latest needle-felting project took the better part of a week to create (the arthritis in my hands prevents me from working very long at felting). I put the finishing touch on yesterday: plastic "pin eyes" which I felt served the purpose better than wool eyes. The legs were formed by wrapping glue-soaked wool around twisted copper wire. Mr. Woolly is free-standing, and is my first felted 3-D bird.

Key

Day 108: Y'know that sickening feeling you get when you've lost your keys? This is the one I'm most afraid of losing, and I am damn close. A friend who works for a county agency in another state just emailed me that many of their programs are being shut down, effective immediately. Among those being axed are HeadStart, adult literacy, licensed daycare centers and domestic violence shelters. Seasonal hiring has been suspended for National Parks, and we were already understaffed due to budget cuts. Retirement benefits are on the line for many of my friends and colleagues. As a volunteer, I am not personally threatened on that score, but with my only source of income being the pittance Social Security doles out, I feel the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. I don't like politicizing my posts, but I do not believe I have a single friend who will not be touched adversely in some major way by the actions of the Felon-in-Chief. And you over there, you filthy magat! What are you going to do when the welfare check doesn't arrive and your kid gets sick with measles or polio? Is that what it's going to take to open your eyes?

Spring Hope

Day 107: Where there's life, there's hope. Hope springs eternal. Even though we have another month of cold ahead of us, we've turned the corner of winter and are heading into spring. The species tulips I planted last fall have broken through the ground, along with snowdrops and snowflakes, and the crocuses and alliums can't be too far behind. Soon, the front flower bed which I so laboriously cleaned of grass and weeds in September will be filled with colourful blooms. Ostensibly, the bulbs will be followed by a wanton array of snapdragons, seed harvested and spread from those in the east bed. The east bed needs very little attention these days, having become the home of crowded perennials like hellebore, peonies, daffodils, grape hyacinths and yes, some rather unruly snapdragons of assorted heights and colours, but who doesn't love snaps? They do well here, so I am encouraging them to spread 'round front. There are worse things that could happen to a garden than having snapdragons take it over. They bloom early and long, often persisting well past first frost and even into early snow (which we have not had this winter, I might add). I'm of an age now that I want things to tend themselves in the flower beds with little intervention on my part. But first the bulbs! The upcoming flush of colour will put the roses back in Mother Earth's cheeks, and mine.

Halvdräll 2.0

Day 106: I like to keep a supply of handwoven towels on hand for gifts, so when my first experiment with halvdräll was complete and I had a better understanding about how colour functioned in the different areas of the weave structure, I decided to make another batch. Here is Halvdräll 2.0, using the darkest and lightest colours for the warp and alternating tabby sequences, with the mid-tone as the pattern thread. Notice that the mid-tone shows up well in all variations. In the previous version, I had used the darkest shade as the pattern thread, and it tended to get "lost" where it crossed a lighter shade of the same colour. The structure of a weave can make a significant difference in how colours behave with one another, and while this is not quite as apparent in halvdräll as it is in shadow-weave, for example, it does seem to play a major role in the final effect. I'll be making four towels on this warp.

Birdseed Sourdough

Day 105: The sound you just heard was my palm connecting with my forehead. "Why didn't I think of this a long time ago?" I've been making sourdough bread in my Dutch oven for almost two years now, and it only just occurred to me to substitute a little millet flour to make my delicious "birdseed bread." The recipe calls for 460 grams of white flour. For this first experiment, I used 50 grams of millet and 410 of regular bread flour. The interior of the loaf was more yellow and had a nice, subtle crunch while remainng moist, and I did NOT need to add gluten for a good rise. The flavour isn't quite as nutty as my original birdseed bread, so I will try increasing the amount of millet flour slightly the next time I bake, and I may toss in one or two tablespoons of golden flax seed. Birdseed bread has always been one of my favourite loaves.

Unfortunate Grouse

Day 104: On my way out to the mailbox, I couldn't help but notice the feathers on the ground. Most were small, breast and belly fluff, but the trail terminated at the roadside with three tailfeathers. Somebody had met with an untimely demise, either from a car, the Red-Tailed Hawk which has been circling over the pasture, or from one of the coyotes who have been serenading in the wee hours for the last week or so. Given the distribution of the feathers, my money is on the Red-Tail. In any event, the bird itself was gone and had left me with a puzzle. It was time to break out the feather book ("Bird Feathers," by Scott and McFarland) to determine who had been the victim. I have to admit that at first I thought the feathers might actually have belonged to the Red-Tail, so that's where I looked first. Nope, not a match. We don't have a lot of big-bodied birds around here, and I knew it wasn't a Northern Flicker, so I checked owls. Still no match. The feather book is not complete, but it can usually put you in the ballpark, so I started paging through it from back to front. I was about to give up when I got to loons, but since I only had a few pages to go and the next one was Bobwhite, I kept flipping. Bingo! Ruffed Grouse! I suppose I should have thought of that since I see them occasionally in the yard. They're not the brightest crayons in the box, but it saddens me that this one came to a sorry end, but everybody has to eat.

The Hate Letter

Day 103: This needs "outing." It is the tip of a very dangerous iceberg. The Trumpian Gestapo is on the march.

At Big Bridge

Day 102: In the hopes of finding more elaborate examples of haareis (hair ice), I took a walk out to Big Bridge yesterday, but with the clarity of hindsight, I know now that I should have waited another hour or two for the frost to melt. I found only a few small formations, widely dispersed, and no more than an inch long. That said, it was a lovely but chilly hike of a little over a mile to the bridge on hard-frozen ground. I have to admit it was a relief not to be travelling it when it's muddy. As part of the Nicholson Horse Camp trail system, the path gets pretty well chewed up by horse hooves, and there are almost always abundant equestrian "land mines" to dodge. Still, Big Bridge is my number-one site for haareis, and at this time of year, most of the horsey crowd is staying at home. The photo on the left was taken facing west from the bridge and shows the area where haareis appears. The photo on the right is the view to the east.

Halvdräll Towels

Day 101: My first halvdräll adventure is off the loom in the form of four towels of varying lengths, and have not been wet-finished yet. I enjoyed the weave structure so much that I measured a second warp in green and yellow, and this time, I will weave them as two pairs identical in their dimensions. The length of the aqua warp was designed to yield only three towels with extra for loom waste, but because I was weaving on the table loom, I had more left over than anticipated. I decided to weave two shorter towels to polish off the remainder rather than a single full-length one. When measuring the new warp, I added an additional half yard to give myself plenty of space. I can't say I'm happy with the red pattern thread here, but it was the only colour which even came close to working with the aqua. The next warp replaces aqua with yellow and natural with forest green. The pattern thread will be a medium dusty green which should show up better on both warp colours. This combination will give me the option of using either the yellow or dark green as the tabby. I will probably make pairs of each.

Finding Haareis

Day 100: Hair ice has been on my mind for the last several days, given recent weather conditions, but I have to admit I wasn't thinking about it when I set out for a short walk in a local county park. I was near the top of the one-mile loop when I spotted the first piece alongside the trail, and my jubilant cry of "Haareis!" must have been rather bewildering to the couple walking their dog the opposite direction. They weren't curious enough to ask as they passed me by, but by then, I had already taken pictures and I doubt that they even looked down to see what had grabbed my attention. A little further on, I spotted another example of this fascinating phenomenon. You see, true haareis (hair ice) forms only in the presence of a specific fungus, Exidiopsis effusa. It occurs on decaying deciduous wood and only under certain conditions. Although the precise mechanism of the fungus' role is not understood, it has been suggested that it may provide a natural antifreeze which stabilizes the formation of ice crystals. It has been noted that the ice "hairs" form at the openings of medullary rays (a cellular structure formed in active cambium, perpendicular to the growth rings of the plant). The "hairs" are also similar in diameter to the medullary rays (roughly 0.02 mm). It should not be confused with ground frost (a type of hoar frost which forms in soil).

The Cushy Bed

Day 99: Now that Merry weighs 13.5 pounds (at not quite 10 months old!), he's too big to be left in his carrier when I have to be gone. I still can't trust him alone and loose in the house, so I've taken to putting him in the bathroom. Up until now, I've been making a bed for him on the counter by folding up a fleece blanket, but I wanted him to be a bit more comfortable, so I purchased a "cushy bed" for him. To introduce him to it, I put it on top of the harpsichord where he usually naps, but he didn't want anything to do with the new smell and unfamiliar texture. Then I had an idea. He had responded well to a catnip toy his auntie Mousie gave him for Christmas, so I bought a little bag of mixed catnip and silvervine (a kiwi relative), filled one of his Squirrelly toys with it and put it in the new bed. He was quite interested in the scent, but only kept patting Squirrelly until the toy flipped out onto the floor. Then it was time for the sillies, and once the initial effects had worn off, I put Squirrelly back in the cushy bed. We went through this process several times over the course of the day, and by evening, Merry had accepted the new bed. He likes having a raised "pillow" around the edge.

Coprinus Petersonii, Peterson's Inky-cap

Day 98: My good friend and mentor Arnie Peterson presented me with the challenge of finding a new species of Coprinus, and although I wasn't quite certain how to go about doing so, fortune favoured me with one in my own back yard. It is customary that when someone discovers a new species and describes it scientifically, they have the privilege of naming it once it has been assigned to the proper genus. I have chosen to honour Arnie by calling this unique fungus Coprinus petersonii, or Peterson's Inky-cap. The scientific description is as follows:

Cap: 2.–2.5 cm in diameter, 4.5–6 cm tall; cylindrical with a rounded top when young, becoming scaly in age. Cap white, flecked with light brown, darker brown at the apex, deteriorating into fine grey-black strands at maturity. Surface tomentose.
Gills: Undistinguished, creamy white.
Odour: Reminiscent of damp wool.
Stipe: 1–1.5 cm wide, cylindrical and tapering only where it attaches to the cap. Surface tomentose. The stipe is solid and compact. An annulus may be present.
Spores: Scaly, 2.5–5 µm, black with an apical pore.
Geographical distribution: Known only from one location in western Washington.

Here, a bit of apology is in order to the several people who swallowed (hook, line, sinker and copy of "Angling Times") my post regarding Cantharellus lanafiltris a few days ago. I have been known to pull legs on occasion with bogus birds, fake frogs and counterfeit caterpillars, but never before without revealing in the last few sentences the deception. I neglected to do so with the Woolly Chanterelle. Those paired fungal specimens were, of course, needle-felted...as is this Coprinus which, I believe, fulfills Arnie's true challenge: to create an Inky-cap with wool.

Spinning The 8-Ball

Day 97: I've been behind the 8-Ball for the last couple of weeks, which is to say that I've been working diligently to spin up eight balls of carded wool in a rainbow range of colours. I bought the package on a whim when Paradise Fibers had their fire sale, although I don't usually like to spin in the woollen style. The first skein I made up (the yellow/gold) is a bit heavier than the others at 37 yards per ounce, but since I intended to make a hat, I will use it as the first colour on a rolled-back edge. The others all come in at roughly 42-45 yards per ounce, each skein weighing approximately 25 grams. The blends are delightful, with (you could probably guess) the green being my favourite.

Lobaria Pulmonaria, Apothecia And Soralia

Day 96: The specialized vocabulary of lichens can be daunting even with a glossary in hand. Let's talk about two types of reproductive structures as they appear on Lobaria pulmonaria (Lung Lichen). The first is "apothecium" (plural, apothecia), visible here as raised brown discs. These are fruiting bodies, i.e., they bear spores which allow the lichen to reproduce sexually with spores from another lichen. However, many lichens are capable of asexual reproduction as well. Lobaria pulmonaria is a case in point. Asexual reproduction occurs when it generates miniature clones of itself. These genetically identical offspring are called soredia (singular, soredium) and emerge through the cortex of the lichen in soralia (singular, soralium), visible in the photo as small white ring-shaped dots. Soralia may appear along the margins of L. pulmonaria's lobes as well, and often in great abundance. A similar lichen, L. linita, may be found in the same environment, however, it does not produce soralia.

Cantharellus Lanafiltris

Day 95: Extremely rare, Cantharellus lanafiltris might be confused with some edible species of Chanterelle, but although they are never found in the same habitat, knowledge of the morphological distinctions should be kept in mind. Otherwise known as the Woolly-Needled Chanterelle, C. lanafiltris is tomentose on all surfaces including the swollen, sparse veins on the underside of the cap. Although not poisonous, the texture of this fungus is unpleasant to the human tongue, however, the fruiting bodies are attractive to felines of all sizes and may cause digestive disturbances if consumed by small cats.

Nephroma Helveticum, Fringed Kidney Lichen

Day 94: It's been nine years since I first found Kidneys (Nephroma helveticum), and that was following a windstorm which dislodged them from somewhere in the forest canopy. They are not specifically noted for being a canopy lichen, although I have never known them to be anything but. I have found them in several locations, and always following gusty weather. Consequently, when I went for a short walk on Sunday in a spot where I had seen them previously, I was watching for them. I did not find any on the one-mile loop, but I did find the Life List lichen I mentioned in my previous post. That discovery took me home and back again with a fresh battery in the camera, and after I was done photographing the Hypogymnia, I turned around to leave and...well, whadda ya know! There were the Kidneys, just a few steps behind me. I had been so focused on the Hypogymnia that I'd failed to look around me. The ones in this location are smaller than those I found initially in 2016 and may in fact be a subspecies, but I do not know how to differentiate them.

Life List Lichen - Hypogymnia Duplicata

Day 93: The days or weeks after a windstorm are great times to go lichen hunting. That wasn't really on my mind when I set out for a walk on a nearby trail, but when I saw how much debris had come down out of the canopy, I said to myself, "Hmmm...I've found Kidneys on this trail before. I'd better keep my eyes open." As always I had the camera around my neck, but after I had taken a few pictures of nothing in particular, the battery indicator began flashing. To conserve what little charge was left, I decided to use it only if I found something of note. When I came across this lichen, I dismissed it as an atypical specimen of Hypogymnia imshaugii which I have found on the trail previously, and didn't bother to take a photo because it was so tangled. A quarter mile further on, I found H. imshaugii, and a niggling suspicion began fomenting in my brain. I could have circled back right then, but did not do so. Instead, I came home and uploaded the photos to the computer, and looking at H. imshaugii, realized that the earlier lichen had been H. duplicata instead. I replaced the battery in the camera with another which was nearly dead as well, and returned to the site, driven by the fact that Hypogymnia duplicata was a Life List lichen for me. This photo is now in the WTU image database, and I am a happy camper. Did I find Kidneys? You'll have to wait for my next post to find out.

The Urge

Day 92: It is irresistible, the urge to plant and grow, and despite having had very little success even in the germination phase over the last several years, I refuse to throw in the towel. Three springs ago, I swore I wouldn't try to grow tomatoes again. Unseasonably hot weather alternating days near freezing was more than they could survive. My dill bolted. Lettuce didn't sprout. The cucumbers croaked, and I said, "That's it. Not doing this again!" But I did. The results in the two following years were almost identical, and I vowed to give up on vegetables again. Historically, I've had better luck with flowers than anything edible, but even the old faithful Gazanias failed to come through for me. I considered my source (usually reliable), and decided to shop elsewhere. So here it is, January, and the Burpee catalog arrived. A BIG catalog, not just a feeble flyer showing one or two varieties in each category. I don't like perusing web pages when I am in the mood to shop. Clicking from one page to another annoys me, but a paper catalog...well, let's just say there's a good reason they used to call them "wish books." Burpee was my breakfast and dinner reading, and I soon found myself thinking about peppers and posies, never mind that I've never successfully grown a pepper of any sort. There was one in particular called "Pot-a-peño,"  good for growing in containers. I have reasonably good luck growing things in containers, and the thought of making my very own jalapeño poppers was more than I could resist. And then I spotted a dwarf form of Bells of Ireland. I've never been able to grow the full-sized variety, but maybe a dwarf would be better. I added it to the list, along with Painted Daisies (in lieu of Gazanias, which they didn't offer). I mean, daisies are something anybody can grow, right? That was as far as I would allow myself to go with the "wish book," but I'm sure when starts begin showing up in the garden stores, I'll cave in and get a tomato or two.

Crow's Mushroom Farm

Day 91: I'm having way too much fun with needle felting! I've done it before, but never three-dimensional figures. The Boleta (center) was my first, cobbled together with leftovers from a kit. The Morel (Helvella, actually, if you want to press the issue) was next, and it took me several days to make. Laying on the ridges was tedious, and in hindsight, there was a better way to do it, namely putting the light colour over the dark, and then adding dark spots to make the pits). The Amanita came together in about three hours this morning. Making the annulus (ring on the stem) was the hardest part. I made it separately and slid it down over the stipe before affixing it to the cap. The Helvella is 2.5" tall, the Boleta 1.5" and the Amanita 1.25". Next up? The Chanterelle Challenge!

Changing Up The Halvdräll

Day 90: When I got to the third and last Halvdräll towel, I decided to change it up a bit, swapping out the dark aqua bouclé for 8/2 cotton. I had dark green on a shuttle, but it didn't seem to work well despite sounding good in principle. The pattern used light blue, white and a dark grey, but I wasn't happy with the appearance of grey with aqua. I dragged several more cones of thread out of my stash, keeping with cool tones at first, but then moving on to warm shades. Bright red came close to the look I wanted, but still wasn't quite there. A darker red solved the problem, although it was not something I would have ever thought to use if I had been planning the project out. That said, I am quite taken with the Halvdräll weave structure, and have two greens and a light yellow picked out for another round. I will be changing the width of each of the three white stripes ( by one pattern repeat of 10 threads in order to make the towels a little less wide. They will be dark green in the next iteration, with light yellow in the wider stripes and light green as the pattern thread throughout.

The Hammock

Day 89: Ostensibly, the Hammock will replace Merry's weaver's box where it sits on top of the cedar chest in the Loom Room, but for now, it's in the living room until he gets it figured out. So far, it has proved itself to be a good hiding place when he's trying to sneak up on a ball, and although it's not really bouncy, it also suffices as a trampoline when he wants to leap on one of his toys. And, mean mama that I am, when I laid him on his back in the cradle, he was like a frustrated turtle trying to get back rightside up! He likes to sleep on his back, so I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually. He barely fits in his weaver's box now, but if he'd rather have the Hammock out here, I'll have to find a larger box for him to use in the Loom Room. Now, which one of you is going to say, "Spoiled kitty!" first? Isn't that my purpose in life?

He Knows!

Day 88: He knows where those weaving cones are, and it's driving him nuts. He saw me put them up there, out of reach of little cats who have already caused mama some consternation by trying to swallow strings, but even from the arm of the triple-mirror vanity (off camera to the left), he knows he'd never make the jump to get them. That said, he's learned not to dangle from the warp on Jutta or steal the bobbin. He knows chewing on the yarn on the spinning wheel gets him into trouble. But those cones...those cones are more temptation than any little cat should be forced to endure. My crochet thread lives in the kitchen cupboard alongside bread pans and baking dishes; the socks I'm knitting are in a zippered cooler beside my chair; wool is sealed in freezer containers; pencils go head-first into pint jars to protect the erasers; the toilet paper is hidden in an upside-down coffee can. You really have to get up before breakfast to outsmart Merry!

Felt A Boleta, Too!

Day 87: I had quite a bit of wool left over from the moose kit, particularly the brown shades, so I decided to try my hand at making a 3-D mushroom (specifically a Boleta, for those of you who might appreciate the distinction). I started by making the stipe (stem), tapering it down from a bulbous base. In hindsight, I should have left a bit more "fuzz" at the top for ease of attachment, but even so, there was no issue with respect to attaching it securely to the cap. Next, I created a flat disc for the pores on the underside, and then built the cap on top of that. When it had reached the desired size and firmness, I began turning the edge so that it rolled in on the light-coloured disc. Predictably, this compacted it a bit more, but it was easy to add more wool around the edge to broaden it out. Once the cap was done, I felted the stipe to it, and at this point, I want to say how much I like working with spiral needles as opposed to triangular ones. They create a much smoother surface, for one thing, but they also embed the wool fibers much more readily. As a final touch, I felted directly into the base to make a flat bottom so that the 1.5" tall Boleta would stand up on its own. For my first time felting a three-dimensional sculpture, I am happy to say that I managed to complete a fairly tiny project without poking my fingers with a needle.

I Felt A Moose

Day 86: I felt a moose! Er...um...I felted a moose! This little kit was a present from one of my sisters-of-the-heart. She understands that sometimes I need a break from spinning and weaving but can't bear to have my hands idle, so she figured this would be just the thing for those times when I need to step away from the loom and the wheel. I hadn't done any needle-felting in quite some time. In fact, the last thing I made was cat-hair "selfies" of Skunk and Tippy. This has inspired me to take up the craft again, perhaps to make some three-dimensional figures. That's something I've never explored.

Purple People Eater

Day 85: In 1958, Sheb Wooley released a novelty song called, "The Purple People Eater." It went straight to the top of the charts, and stayed there for six weeks (a phenomenon in those days). It became my all-time favourite song, so when I found a blended Corriedale top colorway called "Purple People Eater," I simply had to spin some. It's not quite as purple as you might expect from the name, but spun off the fold, it is producing a wonderful tweedy effect as the colours shade into each other. Spinning from the fold (i.e., bending a staple length of fiber over your finger and drawing it into the wheel from the mid-point) creates a yarn which is neither true worsted nor true woollen, although it is closer to a worsted by virtue of the fibers remaining straight for most of their length. The crimp created by drawing the fiber from the center point gives a bit of loft which, although not as "fluffy" as woollen, still makes a softer yarn. You might say that spinning from the fold is the best of both worlds, with advantages derived from both woollen and worsted methods.

Just Plain Adorable

Day 84: No matter how dreary the day (and believe me, they've been pretty dismal for the last couple of weeks), it is impossible to be glum when you have Chickadees around. I have to admit to a fondness for birbs (little round birds) of all sorts: chickadees, nuthatches, bushtits, titmouses (titmice?), kinglets, siskins, wrens, creepers, and even warblers, although the "wobblers" annoy me because all too often I can only hear and not see them, but 'dee-dees hold a special place in my heart because they're so friendly. It took me years to coax them into my yard, but once they'd established themselves and claimed their territory, it wasn't long before I literally had them eating out of my hand. They made themselves rather scarce during the summer months, but once cooler weather arrived, both Black-capped and Chestnut-backed (above) returned to the yard in droves. Some remembered me from years past and immediately took seed from my palm, although the newbies in the group held back, waiting to see if I was a bird-getter. To date, we have not had snow, but I'm hopeful because food scarcity tends to make bold even the most timid 'dee.

Forest Zombies

Day 83: This is how spooky stories begin: hands clawing up through the soil, wrinkled and darkened skin peeling back in shreds, yellow fingernails overgrown and seeking out victims. The Forest Zombies are coming to get you! You have to admit that the Peltigeras have a corner on "creepy" when it comes to their morphology, but the "fingernails" are in fact the apothecia (spore-producing structures) of these common lichens. Some "Pelts" are difficult to tell apart. Others, like Peltigera membranacea (Membranous Dog-lichen, above) are fairly easy, with naked-eye observation of the rhizines (root-like structures on the back of the lobes) being definitive. You should be able to tell it from any others, at least if you're brave enough to get close to a Forest Zombie.

Polytrichum Juniperinum, Juniper Haircap Moss

Day 82: "Little trees." That's what I thought they were when I was very young. I spent a lot of my childhood in the woods, alone and unsupervised, with only the injunction that I be home before dark. Childhood was very different in those days, and if I am grateful for any part of my life, it is for that. My love of botany grew from such things as these "little trees," which I later learned were a moss. Which moss they were has eluded me until now. Mosses are not easy to identify, but you would think that one this common might be featured on the cover of any guide to mosses of the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, and I had only been able to determine that it was some kind of "haircap," not conversant with the very specialized vocabulary surrounding bryophytes. Finally, with the aid of a glossary and a few reliable, authoritative websites, I have decided that it is Polytrichum juniperinum, Juniper Haircap Moss. I could be wrong, but at this stage of my life, that's just gonna have to do.

Cat Dancer

Day 81: Welcome to 2025. The look on Merry's face expresses some of the emotions I'm feeling about the coming year: curiosity, anxiety, puzzlement, the sense that something strange is about to happen, and that despite my best efforts to control an unpredictable situation, what comes next is going to have no bearing on anything I do. I wish it was going to be as entertaining as his Cat Dancer, but I have my doubts about that.

The Cat Dancer was a present from one of his east-coast aunties, and is proving to be even more fun than Stick. Stick requires mama's active participation. The Cat Dancer does not. I simply have to hold one end of the wire (springy piano wire), and Merry does the rest. As he bats the twisted cardboard lure around, it comes back to get him from unanticipated directions and is light enough that it doesn't hurt if it baps him on the nose. He leaps for it when it goes high, grabs it when it goes low, but as soon as it slips out of his hands, it bounces out of reach. He gets a lot more jumping exercise than with Stick, a good thing because he's getting a bit portly. At nine months old today, he weighs over 12 pounds...quite a contrast to the little "teacup cat" I brought home in June.