Elf Graffiti

While in Wildwood with my camera one very cold morning, I saw some strange tiny marks on a tree trunk. 

I snapped a few pictures and saw that they actually looked like black pen marks:

ELF GRAFFITI!

I snapped a close up shot:

I still couldn't read the strange writing so I looked even closer:

Those little elves are leaving secret messages all over the place!

Dr. Coté, remember he's the webmaster for the Wildwood website, has explained to me that I have really gotten images of Scribble Lichen (Graphis scripta) and that the marks are really lirellae or a form of ascomata which are fruiting bodies of the lichen. Now, I'm sure that's what those mischievous elves want him to believe. They don't want to get in trouble because because they are scribbling all over the tree trunks!
If only I could figure out what they have written....

Reach for the Sky!

My small camera does not have a long range zoom. It has a good macro lens for getting close-ups of flowers and critters, but birds and other far-away objects present a greater challenge and sometimes end up being blurs.

However, I occasionally look up and see something that I want to photograph. 

Last week, the rising full (almost) moon got my attention as I was walking to my car that was parked at the Park Road Entrance.

I decided to aim high toward the east:

Seeing that perhaps after several tries, I had an image that had turned out okay, I looked toward the western sky and saw that the sun had begun to paint large streaks and swirls across the heavens. 

I snapped:

I snapped again:

And again:

It was getting darker, and the sun was disappearing over the horizon with its colors.

Time for me to head home to a warm house and dinner.