Dereliction, Moss and More Moss

Spent an interesting couple of hours in the Walled Garden at Bedfords Park, taking shots of moss, the rundown state of the various buildings, greenhouses and general ambience.

The picture on the right is the 'kitchen' - not the most inviting place to cook a meal, but it gives you an idea of the state the garden has been allowed to get in.

Everywhere you look, there's moss. A lot of moss, of many types. Some that prefer growing on tarmac, some on concrete, some on walls (including one that's normally found on damp trees, but here is in the old pineapple bed).

But there's also broken glass everywhere, and this is one 'feature' that needs to be removed as soon as possible. Kneeling down to get shots of lichen was a careful affair, inspecting the ground closely to make sure I wasn't about to spike my knee on a bramble, let alone a shard of glass.

Tim the moss and lichen expert seemed to enjoy himself, bustling around the site, listing the different species he found, a few of which were of particular note, either because of the place they were growing, or their abundance, or the rarity of them.

As far as I'm concerned, many of them look quite spectacular, but I couldn't tell one from another.

I'm simply drawn to the shapes and colour, the patterns formed by the leaves, the drooping fruiting bodies. I must return and investigate some more...