Mosses

The dogs and I walked in the rain again this morning. It had rained most of the night. I heard it on the roof and there are many puddles. It's a gentle rain, no wind, temp. 40 degrees. We are burning tamarack in our outside wood furnace. When I first went out, I thought the good piney smell was coming from the wood smoke. But I kept smelling it all through the walk. It must have been all the soaking wet pine needles around me and underfoot. There is a kind of dry, crunchy, light gray moss on the sand ridge where we go into the woods. I heard someone call it reindeer moss once. Bear likes to roll in it. I think it scratches her back. Today she only tried it once. I noticed that it looked bigger and softer and bent down to touch it. The rounded clumps looked like the tops of old men's heads. Sure enough, they felt soft like wet, gray hair. When everything in the forest is as sopping wet as it is today, it accentuates all of the mosses and lichens and mushrooms. Some of the bushes and little trees looked like they had been flocked for Christmas decorations. One old rotting stump was about completely covered with many shades of gray and gold and green. We walk past it every day and I never noticed it before. It would make a beautiful photograph. The gold and orange mosses especially are much more vivid when wet against the black branches and twigs. I seem to remember reading or hearing that if you are lost in the woods you should check which side of tree trunks have moss growing on them. This will point you North. It's bogus information from my observations. Trees around here have moss all around. If one side seems dominant, it's just as likely to be east or west or south. My advice--carry a compass.