Wood, stone, sand, moss.

An hour among the logs on the beach and dunes south of Oyster Bay, looking at shapes and textures. All the wood was damp; it doesn't get a chance to dry out these days. So browns are browner, blacks are blacker. And the moss is neon.

Roots on the beach. I wonder what the cut was for.

Roots on the dunes.

Flaky. Each layer forms one of the annual tree rings, cut horizontally.

Knot among beach stones.

Moss in the cracks, and a branch scar. The cracks would be vertical if the tree were standing.

Not the same log. The lump may have been a burl.

On the beach, the waves have tossed up a tangle of red alder branches with bull kelp.

And there were fun fungi, and lichens. Next.

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Pasé una hora dando vueltas entre las dunas al sur de Oyster Bay, mirando los troncos y palos dejados por las mareas y las tempestades, observando sus formas y texturas. La madera toda estaba húmeda; en estos dias no hay tiempo en que se puede secar. Así que los colores cafés son más intensos, los negros son más negros. Y el musgo brilla como si tuviera una luz por dentro.

1. Raices en la playa.
2. Raices entre las dunas.
3. Las capas anuales de la madera, desconectadas. En un corte horizontal en el árbol, formarán los anillos anuales.
4. Un nudo de madera entre las piedras en la playa.
5. Musgos en un tronco viejo, quemado. Las grietas correrían verticalmente en el árbol vivo.
6. Otro tronco parecido, con menos musgo. Con un nudo desgastado.
7. En la playa, las olas habían traído un enredo de ramas de aliso rojo con quelpo "toro" (Nereocystis luetkeana).

Y hubo hongos divertidos, y líquenes. Eso, mañana.

Shapeshifter

Habitat matters. On the ground, surrounded by dead leaves and stalked puffball mushrooms, an old log, burned black and half rotted, half buried in mud, is home to a batch of any-shape-will-do mushrooms.

Layered stubby hand shape. With a fat springtail.

This was the largest, the neatest, the closest to a shelf fungus shape. About 3 inches side to side.

Some of the mushrooms were blobs. Some looked like glue squeezed out of a piece of joined wood under pressure. Some were more like droopy fingers. None seemed to have stalks.

The underside of the one above. To get this, I had to hold the camera down on the mud, facing up, click and hope. At least I could see this way that they are gilled mushrooms.

Unidentified, of course. I looked through hundreds of photos, and gave up.

Black

Burnt logs on the shore

Leftovers from a forest fire? Or from someone's huge beach bonfire?