Farewell, old friends.

These lichens have lived happily in our garden for many years but Mrs Talpa kept bumping her head on the large Sycamore branch, which they called home. So, this morning down came the branch.

Lichens are not really plants but very interesting compound organisms produced by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner, which is usually a green alga or a cyanobacterium.

When I took the branch to the local Council Recycling Centre I got into trouble for putting it into a skip labelled "wood". That skip, I was informed, was meant for "real wood". I fear that life is becoming too complicated for me .......