In Front of Yew

Day 19: In the thirty-plus years I've lived here, my English yew hedge has only produced berries half a dozen times or so, and always just a few...or so I thought. Sometimes, it pays to look in front of Yew. I don't know why, but this morning I was inspired to walk around to the roadward side and...well, it kinda looked like Christmas. Admittedly, there's only one female in the entire line of shrubbery which forms my hedge, but it was "berrying" like crazy. Yew berries are poisonous, and the oils in the bark and needles can cause skin irritation or other allergic reactions. Birds don't eat the fruit, but one year, a robin nested deep in the heart of the hedge. I've given up trying to keep the yews pruned back. The hedge is ten feet tall and almost as wide at this point.

Letharia Vulpina

Day 240: Coming back from Yakima, I had already called for a "botany break." A little later, my companions decided to stop at the viewpoint for a lovely terraced waterfall and we were all heading down the trail together when a clump of distinctly chartreuse lichen on the ground caught my eye. All thoughts of scenic views evaporated in an instant, and as Maureen and Kosette proceeded to the overlook, I dropped to my knees to study it. Then looking up, I saw more colonies of it on the bark of several trees, much better specimens than the sorry and sodden example I had first noticed. However, the ones on the tree were well out of reach even with my arms extended over my head. Glad that I had left the macro filter on the camera, I snapped this photo without being able to tell if it was in focus or not. A sample taken from the clump on the ground confirmed the identification: Letharia vulpina, one of the "wolf lichens" used to dye textiles.