Dare to be different

Jess; going back a bit here but isn't The Burren wonderful? I didn't go at the best time of year [early May] but found it beautiful [far more strunning than The Ring of Kerry, which we did another year; bit of a yawnfest that was]. Kept stumbling over monastic settlements as well. So need to go back to Oirland again. My favourite pub, the Tir na nOg is calling me .

butty the website heading says the most depressing something or other!! [confused as to why u would want to visit this site emotion}

I love the face of the woman wearing the twig head-wreath. She looks very compassionate, with a touch of humour.

Ha ha! I am going mainly for the rhubarb look this Spring!

I love the chap in the cow parsley. He's got attitude!

Will try that thanks Tegan. I've previously bought fritillary in bulb form and flowering in pots from garden centres I plant them and that's the last I see of them. I think they are really pretty.

They seemed to like it last year in what is not a lawn, more of a moss plot! Interspersed with fruit trees

I think you have to plant them sideways on sand. Or something like that. Being a fan of Mackintosh I love fritillaries.

We planted about 50 bulbs. Be interesting to see if they come up again this year. I did have two in the garden before that I didn't plant and I've been here 35 years. Might get the garden sorted one day!

Galen did you plant the fritillary yourself or are they random wild ones. I love them but can't grow them for love nor money.

She's wellcome to my bottom lawn if she removes it!

Some of ours falls off onto the terrace, and I expect some of it is used by birds for their nests, but there's still a lot. There is a bay window roofed with slate just below my bedroom window. TheMosses and lichens are very pretty. DD1 was eyeing them up for dyeing purposes last time she was here, especially looking for crottle.

bags the birds pick all the moss off my roman tiled roof and distribute it all over my newly swept patio area!

Perhaps we ought to have a similar GN photo competition?
In the summer I hastily add!

My whole bottom lawn aka wild habitat area is moss and nothing else apart from the odd fritillary last year .
I wondered if in fact she was sitting behind a moss covered boulder and this was clever photography?

When you have to scrape mosses and lichens off your roof annually to prevent leaks (they prize the tiles up) you might believe me, jess. Meanwhile, worry on. It won't make any difference.

Not to mention the Canadian tundra and the Russian, and the US.

Stavanger is not the far north. But that kind of vegetation is probably common throughout Norway, as it is throughout the wild parts of Scotland, and my garden.

I said "moss etc". The whole mat can be put down again and will be fine. I've done this, for goodness' sake! I know what I'm talking about.

And I'm not such a worrier.

Have a careful look at the photo bags - moss does not begin to cover it. My botanical eye can identify the flower thrift/sea pink for instance.
I think, judging by the names at the top, this is Scandinavian - and maybe this kind of habitat is common in the far north.

Rain on roof tiles >>> moss, etc

Rain on stone walls >>>> moss, etc

Rain on paths >>>> moss etc.

It is not a fragile ecosystem (unless someone turns the rain off – #fatchance)

Thanks, butty. Western Norway, south of Stavanger. Very similar climate to west Scotland then. I rest my case. Mosses and all their little relatives THRIVE. If you saw my house and garden, jess, you'd be convinced. Anywhere there's a bit of damp (which is everywhere) mosses and their relatives thrive.

A bit of info. on the photos:

Inspired by the romantics’ belief that folklore is the clearest reflection of the soul of a people, Eyes as Big as Plates started out as a play on characters and protagonists from Norwegian folklore. During a one month residency at the KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film in the South West of Norway, the Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth and I collaborated with sailors, farmers, professors, artisans, psychologists, teachers, parachuters and senior citizens.

Looked like they were photographing somewhere like The Burren, Bags. Little patches of vegetation (they are not just mosses, you can see, a whole load of stuff, some flowering I think), each one a mini ecosystem in an island of bare limestone. Such ecosystems might be common in Scotland but the Burren is certainly considered to be a treasured, rare and delicate habitat in Ireland. They appeared to have peeled off a big patch - it might settle back down, it might not.
(Gosh we are both in full arguing mode today aren't we bags - but we agree about the siskins, on twitter )

I also live in an area where moss thrives and have had no problems transplanting it around the sandstone boulders in my garden.