Snapshot Saturday: It’s easy being green … when it’s this wet

It wasn’t our best walk.  Chris and I set off to ‘do’ part of the Nidderdale Way on Thursday.  Thursday was fine.  Wednesday hadn’t been.  Nor had Tuesday.  There’s been an awful lot of rain lately.

Even as we started out, we realised that mud was to be our constant companion.  And water, trickling along slippery, sticky oozy paths.  We forded streams which according to the map simply didn’t exist.  If we wanted to go onwards, we had to wade through running water, or totter across from unsteady stepping stone to unsteadier fallen branch.

It was tiring.  Finding not-too-soggy resting places was challenging too. We had our sandwiches in a wood alongside what should have been a babbling brook, but was in fact a raging torrent.

A normally quiet woodland stream.

And that’s when I noticed these stones – and trees.  I’d expect boulders and branches like these to have a few tendrils of dry ash-grey lichen clinging to their surface. Instead they were thickly carpeted in vivid green. These specimens (and I don’t know what they are, despite a spot of Googling) were healthy, fecund and spreading very nicely thank you.  It’s easy being green in such a damp, shaded and sheltered environment.

This is my response to this week’s WordPress photo challenge: It IS easy being green!

The green pastures of Nidderdale.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

29 thoughts on “Snapshot Saturday: It’s easy being green … when it’s this wet”

  3. I sympathise; it’s much the same down here too. That walk must have been tough going. Gorgeous moss though. And very oozy mud. I hope you rewarded yourselves with something warm when you finally got home.

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  4. There is nothing like the green of early spring. Looks like a glorious way to spend a day walking and discovering signs of life in the countryside. Our ‘green’ is behind yours but I know the green will be here soon. It’s spring break and we’ve headed south where it is green year round. Have a wonderful weekend.

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  5. Usually, I envy you your walks but not this time. I hate walking in mud. Squelch, squelch. The green is gorgeous, though, and the post is an excellent twist on the prompt!

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    1. Oh, I do too. And Malcolm was meant to be on this jaunt. Guess what? He voted with his feet and volunteered to be our gophers instead. Wise man.

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  7. I don’t know who’s cleverer, the people who think up the subjects capable of multiple interpretations, or you who plump for the ones you’ll go for. No, I didn’t envy you the walk either, despite the treasures you found on it. Great pic of the enormous tyre-marks!

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  10. Made me smile 🙂
    I’m not a great walker and even less so in mud…. BUT I do see moss and stuff, and I took some gorgeous little photos with what has been sprouting on our stone ‘balustrades’ (can’t think of the English word right now)…. It’s the little things which keep us happy aren’t they? You should have put your finger over their soft heads in passing – it’s a wonderful feeling 🙂
    Thanks for this tale – whereas you must have very toned bodies, I was hoping that mine, at the same time the clocks went ahead at 2am, we would also automatically go back the 20pounds to our summer weight – but hélas, I’m still as fat and contemplacent as I was yesterday!!!!

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  11. Nothing greener than moss! Do you recall the old Flanders and Swann song celebrating glorious mud? But it was from the perspective of an animal that likes to wallow, which is definitely not us.

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  12. Pingback: Easy Being Green: Alternative Fact or Alternative Lie? | What's (in) the picture?

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