#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Days #28 and #29 Staring at Lichen

I find myself inspecting little granules as it were on the bark of trees - little shields or apothecia springing from a thallus - such is the mood of my mind - and I call it studying lichens.

Henry David Thoreau

Day #28's find is a tiny rosette perhaps a bottlebrush shield lichen and Day#29 is an even tinier crustose lichen with apothecia perhaps a Lecanora species. Or perhaps not! Doesn't matter right now for it will take me a long time to learn even a little about lichen but in the meanwhile their morphology and features are fun and interesting to study.

 

Zoomy image of the rosette. 

Zoomy image of the crustose lichen showing a thin thallus and apothecia.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

What's a Zoomy?

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #27 Ruffles

An awesome ruffly lichen with black eyelashes! 

Well, really they are "cilia on the lobe margin", but they sure look like eyelashes to me.

Zoomy: Cilia on lichen lobes. (Eyelashes!)

I could probably spend all summer trying to figure out all of the species growing on this twig. Of course, I'm not going to do that. I will, however, invest a few days. So the next few entries will be all about the neighbors of this Ruffled Lichen which may be a species of Parmotrema. 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

What's a Zoomy?

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #26 Lichen, Lichen, Not a Lichen

Lichen, Lichen, Not a Lichen

The little red raspberries on this twig are probably a Nectria fungus commonly known as Beech Bark Disease.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

Nature Journaling at the North Museum October 20, 2018

Your Nature Journal can be purely scientific or it can be whimsical. My journals are usually a mix of both facts and fantasy!

It was Spooky Science Day at the museum. We drew the Jumping Spider, Salticus scenicus. Below the sketch I added some facts: it has broad horizontal bands across its abdomen, its fangs are used to stab its prey and inject it with venom, and its basic teeth crunch the prey when eating. 

Spiders need someone to scare even if it is only an old fashioned Pumpkin Head Man.

Ink and watercolor in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal.

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Days #24 & #25 Wildflowers along the Lane

Two new wildflowers blooming! And a quarter of the way to #The100DayProject goal!

Sweet White Violet, Viola blanda.

Sessile Bellflower, Uvularia sessilifolia.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

Nature Journaling at Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center October 7, 2018

Nature Jounaling in the Fall is easy! Pick up a leaf, trace it into your journal, and have fun coloring it in with colored pencils, markers, or watercolors. 

Add interesting touches like drawing a small bit of the twig or adding a shadow. I experimented with using my paint brush to add the names of the leaves on the page. You don't have to know the name of a leaf to draw it! Just enjoy its shape or color.

Leaves that aren't perfect can be amazing subjects because of their small imperfections. Look for holes that a bug might have chewed and make sure to include it!

Ink and watercolor in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal.

Not between the Sketchbook Covers: Making Gift Tags

Working outside of the sketchbook! Gift tags for Easter presents for my great-nieces. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #23 The Amber Jelly Roll

  

I found a twig with a bit of "jelly" on it! Perhaps it is the Amber Jelly Roll fungus, Exidia recisa.

The gelatinous globules are attached to the twig at a single point. 

It may be flattened when dry but it will fill out again when wet. One side is smooth. 

The other side has minute scales.

I'm enjoying taking these close up shots with my new Canon PowerShot SX530 HS

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

Nature Journaling at Angel Creek "The Nature Place" September 22, 2018

Nature Journaling session at The Nature Place at Angela Creek Park.

What can you find lying on the ground? Make a connection! What does it remind you of? Ask a question! Did some critter eat the nut meat inside and leave the shell here?

Look out across the landscape! Record something you see. Search for a detail to write down in your journal. The long spiky leaves were starting to turn brown.

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #22 The Green Tongues

Green tongues have sprung from the Earth as if She is saying "Nah, nah" to Old Man Winter, "Spring is here, spring is here!"

Maianthemum canadense, Canada Mayflower, is popping up all along the forest floor. 

Canada Mayflower leaves with some fiddleheads in the foreground.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

What's on my mind? Nature Journaling September 18, 19, 20, and 21, 2018

Making one nature observation everyday is fun and simple to record! This page spread shows what stood out to me each day over the course of 4 days. I love to look back in the book to remember what was happening but more than one person, while looking through my journal, has had a hard time with these pages because of the large spider!

A chipmunk I spotted at my friend Jane's house.

What I thought was a caterpillar but was probably a sawfly larva on my chives.

A very large wolf spider in the garden.

And a lowly liverwort with interesting splash cups containing gemmae. 

Ink and watercolor in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal.

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #21 Developing Capsules

I found this tiny bit of moss, unidentified as yet, but interestingly enough, it's sporophytes showed three stages of development. There was a tiny one that still had it's cover or calyptra. A larger one showed the calytra just coming off. The older capsules were naked but still had their lids or operculum. 

From the "Zoomy Files": you can see both the capsule with the calyptra coming off and the older ones that have already lost their covering.

This is the smallest capsule with its covering called the calyptra.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

What's a Zoomy?

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #20 Fuzzy Fiddleheads!

Can't wait to see which fern these will be! Fun, very large, fiddleheads with a camel-colored fuzzy coat.

  

Ink and Watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.