Forest Patina

The forest begins to darken. The sun is still high in the sky and a glance at my watch lets me know it's close to noon. Clouds had been drifting across the sky all morning, but this wasn't a cloud dimming the light through the trees - this was the closeness of the trees.

This is the kind of forest where I slow down, a forest out of a Grimm's brothers fairy tale where children are eaten and lost wanderers wake in a land of elves and not the Orlando Bloom kind. I both love and fear the closeness of the forest. I love it for the silence and stillness that lets me breathe deeply the earthy air while trying to calm my racing heart. It's the closed character of the forest I fear. I'm a bit claustrophobic so not being able to see far makes my heart quicken. I also have a vivid imagination so every drip from mist laden tree, every rustling of a critter I have to stop and listen and remind myself that all is well. That a wicked witch isn't coming to cook me in a stew like my sister would often tell me as children.

My pace slows as I push aside my apprehension to appreciate the beauty around me. In a forest this dense little light gets through the canopy above so the under story is sparse. It's winter now and I wonder if any of the small woodland flowers are able to brighten the side of the trail. Little white foam flowers, maybe some twin flower. A speckling of white against the dark soil and duff.

Dark and moist coastal air is perfect habitat for lichens and moss which I'm finding plenty of during my hike through Hoypus Point. Off in the narrow distance I see the greyish green of what I've heard refer to a Forest Patina (I googled it and google has no idea what I'm talking about). Just look at the image above, the lichens on the tree trunks give an appearance of copper as it ages. The same complexion as the Statue of Liberty.

Our Pacific Northwest forests are perfect for lichens and mosses and even algae to grow on the trunks of trees. And while the light hasn't changed in this section of the forest, it seems brighter now. Less foreboding, more welcoming. I find the patina to have an almost ghostly effect. I pause to wonder why these trees? Why this spot? Had I just not noticed the patina until now?

I softly lay a hand against the green bark and smile before heading back into the dark forest.