Umbrella Moss

A lovely day. My daughter, son and I went to our one of favourite places, a patch of native beech forest, and a deep ravine through which flows a small creek that our family has been associated with for several generations. It was a cool, wet day, but the drizzle stopped before we arrived. Each stirring of the wind scattered drops from the trees.

I wanted to go down to the creek. The path is steep and slippery with the rain. My kids were wonderful, helping me over the bad parts, carrying my camera, and going very slow. In the bush was so beautiful. The mountain beeches have black velvet trunks and branches. There are many ferns, mosses and other native bushes and plants. I love the ringing song of bellbirds and the chatter of fantails. Far below the creek gushed and gurgled over rocks. Encompassing it all was the delicious smell of honeydew.

The light was very poor. I had to set the ISO to 1600 and the shutter to below 100th of a sec. and then rest the camera on my walking stick, which is why the images are not sharp. The main shot is of the umbrella moss, which is so pretty. Next is a view of the creek, which I walked into, hoping to get a shot upstream, but it has been overgrown. Then some beard lichen, surrounded by beech leaves, and finally, the bush clad hillside and low cloud.

We were pleased to see that Vespula wasp bait stations were set up in various places. For once the area was almost wasp free, which was a relief. However, the same could not be said about the sandflies that hung about us in clouds, biting any bare skin they could find. They also filled up the car and came home with us.