Screw-mosses

Yesterday, our first Christmas Day was a great success - though somehow I managed not to take a single photograph! Despite the oven mysteriously switching itself off (luckily it was spotted eventually), the slow-cooked venison haunch was succulent and worked well with the various accompaniments - potato and celeriac mash, braised red-cabbage, beetroots with orange and shallot and sprouts with chestnut and bacon. For dessert I cheated with a bought black forest roulade, which made a light and delicious interlude before the cheese course, which is always Chris's favourite. The evening was spent playing various games, while eating a selection of truffles made by Sarah and Ben (the espresso ones were particularly good) and drinking sloe gin.

After all the celebrations I felt in need of a quiet walk this morning, so headed out to Swaddywell Pit. It was quite blustery and very wet underfoot - the small lake was as high as I've ever seen it. Mosses and liverworts are certainly enjoying all this wet weather. This is a patch of tarmac path that supports a vibrant green stand of moss - in fact there are two closely related mosses are growing alongside each other - the rather golden Sandhill Screw-moss and the plain green Great-hairy Screw-moss.