Okay - don't think I like lichen (what is it?). Overall makes a nice puzzle though...

Very funny, Kate - to photograph your lichen splotches on your skylight was a brilliant idea for a surprisingly tricky medium puzzle! Who would have ever thought that your moss-like skylight colonizers would have made such a great abstract composition!?

A bit difficult to clean off, I imagine.

Cheryl... you live in Canada, and you don't know what Lichens are???? It's very common in the Tundra. Caribou love the stuff.

Lichens are also those curious patches that you see growing on rocks and various other places (like on Kate's skylight); they are predominantly a fungus but mixed with algae and other organisms, and they act as pioneer species, colonizing in these unattractive places (no offense meant, Kate!) that More...

I perhaps should have said "barren places" - not unattractive! The little blighters even can colonize on plastic!

Six comments, and three are mine - I feel like I'm babbling away, talking to myself today!

Caribou might be a little hard on the roof!

Horrible thought to have them on your skylight but a fantastic photo. Whose job is it to scrub them off?

Kate - eeeeewwwwwww!

Almost time for a spring clean Kate! When it warms up a little bit more - but not too hot!

Glad you liked the picture in one way or another!! Actually it wasn't my skylight but a friend's! She'd just moved in and I was helping her with stuff & I couldn't resist the temptation to take a photo! She's a very good friend & wasn't at all phased by my request! You'd have to get on the More...

I'm just glad that this didn't find it's way to 'hard'!! Great colour!!

What did your husband use to clean off the lichen and does it work for smashed bugs on the windshield and headlights? I think I prefer cleaning bug bodies off my car to lichen on my roof any day! My husband is watching a CSI-type program, which triggered (no pun intended-HA) my weird brain nodes More...

Gramma Linda, I love the warped way your mind works!

I'm sorry for your sister, though. I think seeing just how sick people can get would be extremely disturbing.

I've seen lichen on tree trunks, etc. that I thought was quite pretty -- but never had any on my skylights! Get a microscope and look at your kitchen countertops. You'll be amazed at the things that you see growing there, no matter how clean you keep them!

Now, two things -
1. That was just plain cruel!
2. Clean that skylight immediately!!!

Gramma Linda, you are a stitch! Thanks for sharing your bug drama. I, too, am sorry about your sister and hope she has overcome those memories. I've always wondered how anybody could do that work.
Kay, did you really inspect your kitchen counter with a microscope? And why?

Yup, we have fungus, mould, spores, algae, but honest Heidi I'd never heard of lichen... maybe if I lived closer to caribou... It isn't very nice stuff though. I still hold that it made an interesting puzzle.

I agree, Cheryl. The lichen was a very original idea from Kate, and made a very unusual puzzle. Judy -- no, I didn't actually do that. I saw a documentary on TV that showed it, to demonstrate that solid surfaces (like plastic, formica, etc.) are a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. More...

Plenty of fungi and lichen pics in my gallery if you want a look.

Kate - I bet when you submitted this photo you had no idea just what you would unleash from your puzzle audience! This is the most amusing batch of comments I've read yet - and I thank all of you for brightening my day! And dear Kay, I, personally believe in living in harmony with the microscopic More...