Did you know that in Portland there is measurable precipitation 155 days of the year? Yeah... and that it rains on average 37.5 inches per year here? Yeah... That my friend is why this is where the moss grows. Things grow here. And then they grow some more. And it's all green. There's no grass, just wines and ferns and flowers and trees and if it's not green to start with, it will be once the moss gets hold of it.
The moss... I've taken tons of photos thinking they will be the best moss photo yet only to find when i get home they look like all the other moss photos I've taken. Bottom line is the moss is cool. It always looks perfectly placed but it's not planned, plotted, planted... it's just everywhere on rocks, walls, streets, trees, roofs, street signs... it truly incredible. Rather than show you my entire catalog of moss photos, I'd like to direct your attention to this photo which demonstrates the two main types of moss... the green carpet kind and the white moss bark kind. Green carpet is most common but the moss bark is my personal favorite - a nice contrast to the green carpet.
The people here say a few things pretty consistently... "Oh we have seasons, it's just temperate here" or "but at least it's dry here." Oregon is without question one of the most naturally beautiful places I have been but there is no way they have real seasons when their temperature range is 45-85 and nothing ever turns brown and it is absolutely not "dry" here. If this is dry, so is Houston. My proof... the slugs and the snails. I have no good science to back this up but I would argue... only in humid, generally moist places can these slimy creatures reach such truly remarkable sizes. This slug... 6 inches... I measured. This snail... 4 inches.
From what I have learned, July is the best month of the year - the one time where there is generally more sunshine than rain. You don't realize how gray the sky is until it starts to clear and the sun comes through. For the first couple of days, I thought to myself that trading sunshine for beautiful green hills was a pretty good trade but we'll see how I feel about that at the end of the month. For now, I'm enjoying the moss and all of the other beautiful things this climate makes possible.
Stay tuned for more from Portland... where the moss grows.
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