Chilly welly wander

I've been wondering who had yanked up the liverwort on top of an old spruce stump (a Christmas tree from a long ago Boggy Brae family). This morning I saw a magpie mining the wood, presumably looking for grubs or ants. I wasn't quick enough to get a pic.

Down there beside the stump the ground is very soggy... well, it's soggy everywhere at the moment!

The lichen and the mosses on the stump are lovely.

From higher up the garden I was surprised to see some snow on the hills to the north but I noticed that the rain had hit "Scrawny" from the north-west so I guess what was rain here was snow a bit higher and 'norther'.

Scrawny's trunk dry on one side

Wet and ivy-clad on the other

I enjoyed the colours of fallen leaves, young birch bark, and dying lemon-scented fern. It was chillier than I expected out there. I haven't taken my hat off yet.