On a fine morning in late August, a weathered cedar stump along the trail into the deep woods wears a carpet of haircap moss (Polytrichum commune). The delicate wonders emerging from the thatch are dancing sporophytes, fragile strands topped by seed capsules wearing raindrops and filaments of spider silk. Just beyond the photo, a crab spider waits for a fly to put in an appearance, one fraught with peril.
How often does one wander along a trail and not notice such wonders? I suspect the answer is, most of the time, for this old hen anyway.
My moss colony was a miniature jeweled world, complete within itself, its glistening raindrops holding the whole sunlit forest in their depths, upside down of course. For the life of me, I can't come up with the right words to describe it. A tiny cosmos, teeming with life. Its own history. Its own traditions. Its own stories. Astonishing. Breathtaking. Radiant. Perfect.
3 comments:
Indeed perfect, and the world you saw and captured in a camera became even more perfect when I saw it on my screen just now, and read your description, and smiled. Appreciation. Beauty shared.
A miniature magical world! Brings my heart to that innocent wonder again - the heart of a child... Love it!
How perfectly stunning. Thank you for sharing this! I can feel the cooler air.
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