![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/helenadamson\/files\/2019\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2019-05-10-at-20.48.36-146x300.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSmall boy: Are you a tree inspector?<\/p>\n
Me: No I’m looking at lichens<\/p>\n
SB: What’s a lichen?<\/p>\n
Me: Come and see<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Then a dozen small boys, aged 10 -12 playing on scooters came to see the lichens on the sycamore and cherry trees in the B&M car park in Blyth. I showed them how to use the hand lens to look at the few lichens there were. They saw <\/em>Xanthoria and <\/em>Physcia,\u00a0mostly, looking like whole worlds through the hand lens.<\/em><\/p>\n SB2: Wow! I’m not being funny but they actually look amazing! (can’t remember his exact words, wish I could)<\/p>\n We chatted about algae and fungi (they said they knew about these from school) and pollution indicators. They all took turns to look. I said to take a photo and they had the great idea of taking it through the hand lens (see above).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n SB3: I’m going to show that to Dr XXX (teacher’s name) and I might get a GOLD MARK. Yeah!<\/p>\n I hope Dr XXX gave them all gold marks. I was only in Blyth cos I had to drive to pick up my phone that I’d carelessly left on the coach after fieldtrip. Feeling guilty about carbon footprint of driving all that way. Hope my sharing a bit of lichenology with 12 young boys mitigates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Small boy: Are you a tree inspector? Me: No I’m looking at lichens SB: What’s a lichen? Me: Come and see Then a dozen small boys, aged 10 -12 playing on scooters came to see the lichens on the sycamore … Continue reading