Macro Monday

Since we burn wood during the winter months, I often see some interesting Lichens on the logs we have.  I saved this one out for pictures, and now it will go in the stove to help us keep warm. It reminds me a bit of undersea Coral.
Happy Monday everyone. Click on over to http://lisaschaos.com to see lots more close-ups.

Yesterday was a really busy day. We tackled a project we do once a year, and one we don't especially like to do. That is taking apart the 2 motors and blowers on the wood stove, cleaning and oiling them. It's a tedious job, and somebody has to do it. I have a cold, the first one I've had in over 2 years, I feel misrable, and I really didn't feel like working, but now it's done. We depend on these motors with their blowers to push the heat up from the cellar where we have the stove, and make sure we service them every year. This includes taking most of the wiring apart ( that's Gary's job ) , taking all the screws out, removing the motors from the blower housing, and air cleaning it all, and then oiling all the little places that need it. THEN it all has to be put back. It's about a 3-4 hour job for the 2 of us. In the meantime our daughter-in-law came over and cleaned out the stack for us. Now we're all ready for the snow that is on it's way for this week-end.
On my creek walk Thursday I came across some pretty neat lichen. And some ordinary looking moss.

These dried little things were cute.

Even some windswept grasses down by the water.

I discovered a very large rose bush that I hadn't seen before. This squiggly gaget was interesting, and get a load of those thorns!

Here are the rose hips from this bush, and there were lots of them. They are over an inch long. I will be looking for the flowers on this one next year.

Here is the kind of fungus I like to paint on. The underside of course, and it's the size of 1/2 a dinner plate.

Another smaller fungus, with those wild cucumbers in the background.

More moss.

These are kind of neat.

But I really like this one. Looks like a miniature forest.

I checked on my Lilacs and they have their buds for next spring.

I also spotted some ever bearing red Raspberries, that the ants were dining on. Must be the birds didn't get them all.

And last but not least some colored leaves on the Forsythia bush. For some reason they are hanging onto their leaves yet.

Have a wonderful week-end.

Slow Walk

It was a cool, wet, and windy day here on Saturday. In the afternoon we took a slow walk around the perimeter of our property. There is so much more to see if you don't hurry. Not many birds around, and we didn't see any ducks or other wildlife except Azrael of course.
On a fallen branch is this neat lichen. I think these are Spiny Puffballs. I have a book on Mushrooms, but my word there are so many. These are growing under one of the Blue Spruce trees.

This pine cone has yet to open. You can tell we have no squirrels around because we have loads of pine cones still on the trees.

Red berries from the Hawthorne tree.

More red berries and this time they grow on the weedy Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, which the book says is actually a member of the potato family. You learn something new every day!

A couple more pine cones still in the tree and unopened.

More lichen on a fallen tree branch. We've had plenty of rain, and you can find these everywhere. I have more to post tomorrow. I didn't realize how beautiful they really are until you view them up close.

Water droplets on a blade of grass.

Gary calls this Bird Lunch. We still have some of the red Delicious apples in the tree , and the birds love them.

That's all for today folks. The weather is deteriorating, and has dropped 4º in the past hour from 42º to 38º. The weather people say snow and possibly lake effect snow coming our way. We live smack dab in the middle of the snow belt off Lake Erie, so we can always expect something. Have a wonderful day, and do keep your camera handy...