75. Lichen

From the magnificent..

A day of contrasts. First, walking along a stormy beach leaning against the wind, picking my way over sand littered with seaweed and sea foam, looking out over a wild, misty ocean. 

Later, in the Garden, I walked up the slope to the ring fort and clambered over an old stone wall, sheltered by clumps of hazel and hawthorn. Little wind here, just a gleam of winter sunshine that lit up a miniature tapestry of grey, brown and red; a fairy garden for the fairy fort, grey-green lichen decorated with red hawthorn berries. 

...to the miniature

The lichen had exquisitely-formed, crusty branches that reminded me of seaweed. These strange beings are neither plants nor mosses but symbiotic partnerships of algae and fungi. They are so tough they can live on bare rock and tree bark, creating their own food from air and water, sunlight and minerals. They grow on rocks by the sea too, coping with salt, gales and everything the ocean can throw at them.

There is, however, one thing most of these exceptionally resilient organisms can't cope with: pollution, the toxic products of our modern lifestyles. Healthy lichens mean clean, healthy air, and I am grateful that we have plenty of both on this Atlantic shore.