Lichen on Hawthorn.

The hawthorn has burst its buds so spring must be coming soon. and I noticed in the autumn that it has now offered a home to some lichen. O.k, some of the yelly stuff is tolerant of salt spray at the sea-side, but tolerating the traffic passing the house signifies a major step forward in air quality.
 
When I was at school, lichen was merely a biological curiosity, being the only known incidence of symbiosis in the entire universe consisting, as it does, of an alga living inside a fungus. Since then, science has moved on and we now don’t know, as far as I am aware, of any life form that isn’t in a symbiotic relationship. It was only forty years ago that I knowingly saw my first lichen, it was on a photography course at Kindrogan field study centre on the edge of the Cairngorms. It was a place notable for the number of toads it harboured (it was vital to use a torch outside at night), and the water supply was such that we all went into Pitlochry to buy our own personal stock of very soft toilet paper. It was also while there that I discovered Schiehallion, the Munro that I was assured was known as “The Lady of the Mists,” and the magic of its limestone pavement. The following summer, I took Mrs TD up there on the back of the motor-bike where we explored the mountain together – and she says I’m not romantic.