In two previous posts about moss, the subjects were very small, about the size of golf balls. Today the targets were much larger. The moss in the first photo is only about six inches long, but the rest are all quite large, roughly two feet or so across. These reside on large rocks near the river, just above the water, and they struck me because of their diversity of color, ranging from bright green to gold and a blend everything in between.
From about the middle of May through the middle of June, these will all be under the water of the spring snow melt, and yet they seem to suffer no harm.
Montana Outdoors 
laying out a spring carpet
that first one could be a tiny putting green
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Comment by silken — February 22, 2008 @ 11:07 pm
That’s what my wife said about the first photo too! I liked the way it fit inside the angles of the rocks. I guess this time of year I’m looking for anything with color while waiting for the flowers in a month.
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Comment by montucky — February 22, 2008 @ 11:22 pm
[…] Williams and AJ is their "superior autobiographical memory" ?? an …ap.google.comWinter moss, 4 In two previous posts about moss, the subjects were very small, about the size of golf balls. Today […]
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Pingback by subjects - newsmaker — February 22, 2008 @ 11:39 pm
My parents always got upset with me when I tried to save the moss from their “gardening”. But it’s so fuzzy!
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Comment by bandvox — February 23, 2008 @ 2:08 am
Durnit- sorry. That comment registered under a different account of mine.
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Comment by WordVixen — February 23, 2008 @ 2:09 am
Beautiful colors and textures!
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Comment by winterwoman — February 23, 2008 @ 5:23 am
You are outdoing yourself. Keep ’em coming!
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Comment by barbara — February 23, 2008 @ 8:31 am
WordVixen,
I liked moss when I was a kid too. These large versions do have the fuzzy feel that they look like: the small ones have a harder surface than one would think.
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 9:11 am
Winterwoman,
It’s that variety that fascinates me so much about them. The colors give me some decorating ideas.
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 9:14 am
Thanks, Barbara! I think we like the bright colors as a contrast to the black and white of a long winter. The moss along the river seems to get more bold at this particular time of year.
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 9:19 am
Okay the patch in that third photo obviously devoured a small child, and I definitely see fingers coming out of the last shot.
Great pictures…if a little freaky.
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Comment by Pinhole — February 23, 2008 @ 9:24 am
I don’t know if they’re ominous, Pinhole, but I suspect they will be around long after we’re gone.
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 9:31 am
These photos are wonderful!
It’s great to see some color surfacing after this long winter.
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Comment by AK_Adventurer — February 23, 2008 @ 11:17 am
Darn it! Pinhole beat me to it! He obviously saw the same things I did. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw pic #3, though I didn’t see the “fingers.”
He’s weird, though.
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Comment by wolf — February 23, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
AK Adventurer,
Yes, I look forward to the color. We’ve had a long winter, but a very good one. It’s the first in ten years with an average amount of snowfall and everyone here is elated about that!
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Wolf,
It might be interesting to have you and Pinhole around a campfire late at night!
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 1:26 pm
Beautiful shots. I think they all look pet-able. Which is the odd thing I seem to do when I encounter moss – I pet it. A dog owner at heart I guess. (got a giggle out of pinholes and wolf’s reponses – 🙂 You all make quite a creative team!
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Comment by aullori — February 23, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
I have to admit I touch the moss too. These large ones are really quite soft! I visited the sites of the small ones today and found they are through growing for this year and have formed very hard deposits where the green had been; no longer petable.
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Comment by montucky — February 23, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
These are really cool Terry, I love the textures and colors in them, very well done 🙂
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Comment by Bernie Kasper — February 28, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
They fascinate me, Bernie. I think of them as little gardens all by themselves before the summer gardens begin to grow at all.
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Comment by montucky — February 28, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
Amazing photos, thank you for sharing. I just love moss and even more lichen. I am really glad that some lichen decided to live on the stones in my garden. I should really take photos of them.
Thank you for your comment in my blog, and here the hail is melted now, after 24 hours.
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Comment by beyenburgerin — March 5, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
There are many lichen around here as well and I love seeing them. I will take photos of some too. They are really very pretty. Thank you for visiting!
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Comment by montucky — March 5, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
I once saw a film about lichen, it was soooo amazing. There is lichen that lives on the same stone since 2000 years!!! A lot of lichen, e.g. on old houses, are several hundred years old. It is so impressing that these tiny “creatures” are much older than I am, I sometimes wish they could tell stories…just thinnk about what they could tell about the history of your area…
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Comment by Brigitte — March 6, 2008 @ 7:42 am
The rocks here have many different types of lichens on them and I imagine some are very old too. I always notice them and find them interesting. Here’s a photo of one you might enjoy seeing: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2313994371_e97b8b125e_b.jpg
It was at my feet when I took the photo of the banner at the top of my page. It sits about 4 miles from the trail head at an altitude of about 6,500 feet and has on it traces from the previous night’s snow. It was taken on October 4, 2007.
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Comment by montucky — March 6, 2008 @ 9:51 am
Wow, it reminds me of some lichen I saw in the Norwegian mountains: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1417/829237656_412e89d49b_b.jpg and http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1096/1186596042_e368083ed6_o.jpg or http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1323/1185739543_1d1b11625f_o.jpg . Sorry, the quality is not as good as your photos. And you will love this site http://www.vossnow.net/ , it is from a Norwegian train driver taking photos in mountainious areas. (train = tog).
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Comment by beyenburgerin — March 7, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
Thanks for letting me see those photos! I wish I knew much more about the lichens! Those in your photos seemed similar to some of the ones I see here. I know your mountains are so much older than our rocky mountains, and I wonder if that makes any difference in the lichen types.
Thanks for the link to that photo site, too! I will visit it many times, I’m sure!
On a hike I made yesterday I took some photos of a number of different lichens that were growing there. In a day or two I will do a post with a bunch of them. Some are very colorful.
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Comment by montucky — March 7, 2008 @ 5:43 pm
I am really looking forward to those photos.
My photos are taken in a holiday, I myself do not live in Norway, unfortunately, but in Germany. And it is true, the Norwegian mountains are about 2 million years old.
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Comment by beyenburgerin — March 8, 2008 @ 4:14 am