It has dried out and cooled off a bit, with an almost-frost, so everything is getting ready for winter all of a sudden. The mosses and lichen are doing whatever weird things they do at the last minute. The pincushion moss has tiny little green threads that I assume are its flower-equivalents (look closely), and the sphagnum or whatever next to it is throwing up thicker, reddish shoots.

The pale greenish cup lichen is making cups all over the place.

I don’t know what these little things are - lichen or just tiny plants. They’re not sharp at all, despite appearances.

They make for a tiny prehistoric-looking landscape, with the lichen.

I think this is a young bolete mushroom, but I’m not sure. If so, it’s edible, but I don’t plan to find out.

This is all just in our yard still. Taking the dog out is a tiny nature hike.