Nebraska like Antarctica
Okay, there are times when Nebraska gets really cold, but not that cold. No, it’s not temperature I have in mind: don’t you think that the outline of these lichens is like that of Antarctica? Following in the footsteps of Amundsen, I strode to the top of Scott’s Bluff National Monument on May 28th and metaphorically planted my photographic flag there.
If you’d like a much closer look at a portion of these lichens, click to expand this excerpt:
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
I lichen liken.
Sherry Felix
July 21, 2017 at 6:23 AM
In this case, do you also liken lichen to Antarctica? Or if you favor trees, is it to a yew you liken it?
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2017 at 6:41 AM
Lichen on yews is pretty too.😆
Sherry Felix
July 21, 2017 at 6:54 AM
And in New York you may have heard some people say “yous guys.”
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2017 at 7:03 AM
Yup.
Sherry Felix
July 21, 2017 at 8:07 AM
It occurs to me you could say to the owners of certain plant nurseries up there: “Yous guys are yews guys.”
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2017 at 9:27 AM
Aww stop. You make me LOL
Sherry Felix
July 21, 2017 at 10:34 AM
Given its size, it could be Ant-arctica.
Robert Parker Teel
July 21, 2017 at 7:56 AM
That’s true. I didn’t provide any scale. Even if I’d provided a normal scale, no ant would have been heavy enough to register on it.
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2017 at 8:02 AM
Good spotting, Steve!
Pit
July 21, 2017 at 9:15 AM
Thanks. While I mostly devoted my time to things I can’t get in central Texas, especially grand geological landscapes and plants that grow there but not here, I couldn’t resist photographing at least a few of the lichens that make the top of Scott’s Bluff their home.
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2017 at 9:24 AM
Have a great weekend,
Pit
Pit
July 21, 2017 at 9:25 AM
Sure thing. You guys too.
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2017 at 9:28 AM
I wouldn’t have seen the lichen as Antarctica had you not suggested it. On the other hand, it might have been more obvious if it had been all white. What did occur to me for the first time is the way the words — arctic and (ant)arctic are related, and I was surprised to find that “antarctica” goes back to Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
I was intrigued by the closeup, which reminds me of mosaic work. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a patio table with a lichen-like mosaic as its top?
shoreacres
July 22, 2017 at 7:16 PM
From what I’ve been able to tell from some brief looking, Marinus of Tyre created that name for whatever was anti- (opposite) the Arctic, though neither he nor anyone else had any idea what that was. We’ll have to fault your teacher in grade X for not explaining the connection between Arctic and Antarctic.
That lichen really is mosaic-y, isn’t it? Seems you’re not alone in seeing a relationship.
Steve Schwartzman
July 22, 2017 at 7:35 PM
What a fun page of images that was. Strangely, I think my favorite wasn’t a tile mosaic, but this yarn-bomb lichen spreading up a tree.
shoreacres
July 22, 2017 at 7:49 PM
I’d never heard of yarn bombing, so I looked it up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing
Steve Schwartzman
July 22, 2017 at 8:29 PM
Another of my readers recently was introduced to yarn bombing, and wrote about it in an intriguing way on his blog. Some of Houston’s yarn bombers make a point of going back after a week or two and removing their art. All it takes is a pair of scissors.
shoreacres
July 22, 2017 at 8:37 PM
It seems some practitioners spin quite a yarn.
Steve Schwartzman
July 22, 2017 at 10:53 PM