Sunday, May 30, 2021

dead limbs, lichens, and News Of The World


Texas star hibiscus, our native hibiscus

Apparently there was a big storm Friday night with high wind, lightning, thunder, and an inch of rain. The dog and I slept right through it.

So yesterday we finally got out there and cut up the big dead limb that fell during all this rain and filled half the little backyard. Then I loaded it all up in the truck and tossed it on the burn pile but first I had to empty the truck of all the other fallen branches that had accumulated so that went on the burn pile first. Then I filled it up again with the branches that were currently laying all over the yard some of which were the ground sweeping branches on the oak at the back of the property that I had pruned off. Maybe not completely, but pretty full. Then I mowed the little backyard which I had not been able to do. And yes, I mowed, instead of using the trimmer.

Our friend Bobby is moving to a retirement community to be near his daughter and grandkids and so he was selling his yard stuff which included a battery operated lawn mower which my sister acquired and then she gave me her little electric lawn mower along with the power cord. I don't know that it took me any less time but it's a much more even cut.

After that I was done for the day. I had rented the movie News Of The World Friday night but since we don't have dinner til 8 and it's about 9 when all the chores are done and by then watching a movie is an exercise in futility because by 9:30 we're nodding out on the couch. So we watched it Saturday afternoon. We had both read the book, which is an excellent read if you haven't, and the movie doesn't follow it precisely but it was still very good.

Now back to the dead limb. It was covered with lichens, such variation and so interesting.







 

21 comments:

  1. Thank you for the lichen pictures. I love them. I follow lichen accounts on Twitter, even, such esoteric names for these colonies. Yours are really luxuriant.

    I like your ongoing garden adventures.

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    1. gardening adventures is all I've got these days since I'm not being creative.

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  2. I do love lichens. Their color is so hard to describe and they come in so many different shapes and forms.
    Sounds like you're back on the work train, woman. How's your elbow? Glad you got a lawnmower. At least you don't have to hold it up as you use it. That's got to be an improvement.
    I read News of the World too. I'd love to see it.

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    1. well, for one day anyway. yesterday would have been a good day to work outside...overcast, not hot, a little breeze...but I couldn't face dousing myself with mosquito repellant. maybe I'll get out there today.

      my upper arm at the shoulder. it's better. not completely pain free but a much greater range of motion pain free. and once I'm up moving around it frees up even more.

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  3. Don't you just love all this rain? Lichens on trees fascinate me. They look as though they should be living on a coral reef somewhere.

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    1. we really needed the rain...before. now the ground is so saturated there is still water standing in ditches.

      I never thought about that but they are very similar to coral.

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  4. Lichen is so fascinating!!! Thanks for sharing -- great photos!

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    1. these are pretty common here but every now and then I spy one that is very different.

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  5. Love that hibiscus flower. What a beauty. Nice to see the lichen too. Such an interesting life form it is.

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    1. I planted that one from seed that my sister gave me. every year it's bigger and blooms more.

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  6. That is some juicy looking lichen. Very nice.

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  7. Dyers use lichen for dye color. I wonder if yours would have made any good colors.

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    1. hmmm. I have no idea. one would think it would be the color of the lichen but probably shades of brown. would be nice though if it was that lovely gray green.

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  8. Fabulous lichen! Here lichen growth is considered an indication of clean air - in other words, if lichen shrink or disappear it's an indicator for air pollution.

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    1. well, that's nice to know. though I think they must like our heat and humidity.

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  9. Your lichen reminded me of the sea anemones and sea life that Robin Andrea's blog showed growing on rocks during her minus tide walk.
    Your close up shots of the lichen are so interesting to look at. I had to google to find out it is a fungus - so kind of like a mushroom? I learn so much from blogs!

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  10. Well, you know I'm a sucker for lichen (lichens?) and those are so interesting and textural! We're the same way about movies -- if we don't start them by 8 p.m. we'll never make it!

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  11. Ooo - I love the lichen photos - especially those last two. Very cool!

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  12. That Dead limb with all the fantastic array of Lichen is a thing of Beauty... I hope you kept it and will just let them thrive and be a visual pleasure?

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    1. it all went on the burn pile but plenty more where that came from. it grows on everything here.

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