Getting better...

 Exactly 2 years ago today I wrote a post about Beard lichens (Usnea) and re-reading it, I am pleased to find that after 2 years I am a bit better at knowing what I am looking at! I meet up (by Zoom) every fortnight with a few others who share my interest in lichens, and we have a little investigation going - about Usnea and the weird "flying saucers" with whiskers that grow on them:

The technical name is an apothecium and it is a structure that produces spores that  disperse to grow more lichen.  This is a picture of Usnea subfloridana, which is a really common lichen locally, but it is only rarely that I have found them with these circular growths on them.  I have a theory that they only produce them in damp areas near rivers but I will need to check out some more similar habitats to see if that is the case.

Further south there is a very similar lichen called Usnea florida which always has the circular structures and has the lovely name of Witches' Whiskers. Here's a photo from Wales - not my photo but from Radnorshire Wildlife Trust

Usnea florida

I found examples of these circular growths on Usneas by Tromie Bridge, part of the  Insh Marshes RSPB reserve.  The meadow is best known for the abundance of orchids in the summer, but the whole area is worth a visit at any time of the year.

River Tromie

There were the remains of puffballs: 

Mature puffballs

You may be more familiar with them as round white balls, but they mature and grow spores inside and then a hole forms at the top.  If drops of rain (or a foot!) lands on them the spores puff out like smoke.

Back at home, I regularly see wood mice in the garden and occasionally they get into the house (one of the side effects of living in an old stone house that does not have conventional foundations). Unfortunately a field vole got caught in one of my mouse traps:

They are much chunkier with short tails and blunt faces.  They are much more secretive than mice and I have only rarely seen them in the garden, but they are obviously about. It was rather sad to have caught one. A few years ago I even caught a shrew. These creatures are around us but we remain oblivious to their presence most of the time.