#peat bogs

[adventuresofalgy]

The weather birds had promised Algy a brief respite from the drenching Scotch mist, and he was gratified to discover that for once their forecast was correct, for the next morning was decidedly brighter, and although the rain – and no doubt the mist too – would surely return, it was pleasant to see the world again, and to be able to relax without having to shake the water off one's feathers every few seconds…

Flying back to the edge of the peat bog, Algy settled down on a convenient bank of heather, which bordered one of the many small pools to be found scattered across the treacherous marsh. Leaning back happily on the accommodating wee bushes, he pondered the mysteries of the wild west Highland weather, and thought how very much more agreeable it was not to be soaking wet… If only it could last!

But for now he was both dry and comfortable, and so – forgetting about his recent drenching and the dreariness of the short, dark days – Algy turned his thoughts instead to his human friends who were beset by quite different concerns and miseries. He knew that many were greatly worried about the human conduct of the world, and some were perhaps even falling victim to its excesses.

Reclining in the tranquillity of a wilderness where "the great heron feeds", Algy recalled a particularly apposite poem, and he very much hoped that those of his friends who were troubled or distressed would also be able to come into the peace of wild things and rest for a while…

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

[Algy is quoting the poem The Peace of Wild Things by the contemporary American writer Wendell Berry.]

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Rewetting about half of England’s lowland peat would be enough to deliver a fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions savings needed from the country’s farming by 2030, research suggests. Rewetting peat would also help restore habitats for birds, wildlife and plant species.

[spiritheyregone]

[Peat] consists of Sphagnum moss along with the roots, leaves, flowers and seeds of heathers, grasses and sedges. Occasionally the trunks and roots of trees such as Scots pine, oak, birch and yew are also present in the peat. (walter-us.net)

[gudaho]

what the FUCK do you MEAN we are running out of peat???? OUT OF BOG???? WE ARE DESTROYING TOO MANY BOGS???? Think about the number of preserved bodies that are being displaced for this, please for the love of god replace peat with something else or learn how to efficiently farm it fuck

[victusinveritas]

@alackofghosts adds this which should not have been left in tags.

[silly-fern]

Visited the peat bog up in parc Frontinac some weeks ago and forgot I wanted to slap that in here.

It was so pretty, walking through silent forests blanketed emerald moss and still pools of clear and tranquil waters. The thick conifer forests start to thin the closer to the peat bogs you get until green moss slowly is exchanged for rusty sphagnum.

The trees here are thin and become loose in rank the further out into the soft peat that stretches out far into the distance.

Hidden gems lay hidden, nestled within the humid moss and decaying foliage like this purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea). The peat bog is a rich ecosystem harbouring beautiful orchids and hungry carnivores plants.

It was a beautiful hike and once the spring comes, I will return again with the blooming of the orchids.

[amphibimations]

Choose your own adventure comic, poll below!

As you stand on the vast moorland, near where the hills end and the bog starts, your mind rushes with anticipation. Today, you are going to RAISE THE DEAD!!!

… More specifically, you’re going to try necromancy on some dead frogs. You’ve been practicing for months, and now that you’re 12 years old, you feel like you should at least be able to make small animal skeletons move. 

First, you’ll need to find some bones. 

All you need to do is search the large, carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews that grow in the area. There are a lot of plants, so it would be easier if you had someone to help you search. This is where your pet golem, Pete, will come in handy. You like to mold him into a different shape every time you remake him. 

This collaborative choose-your-own-adventure comic is called Codex Calluna. A new page will be posted every Saturday evening (est). If you would like to, reblogs mean more people will be able to see this and participate!

Archive blog with only the comic pages: here

[itsbeardedcollectorwolfme]

Someone find that big mummy photo.

“I want to decompose in a bog” well you clearly don’t know the first thing about bogs. Clout chaser

[adventuresofalgy]

The next day was unusually calm, with scarcely a breath of wind and that from the north-west, which usually troubled Algy's home far less than the winds from other directions, owing to a substantial sheltering ridge on that side.

But it was grey. Totally grey, grey, grey… and also exceedingly damp, as it had rained on and off all night. However, it was not actually raining when Algy got up, although it threatened to start again soon, and so he decided to make the most of what the weather birds had said would probably be the only vaguely dry day for quite a while to come.

Flying over to a wee clump of stunted and wind-battered Atlantic oak trees, which stood leaning rather precariously over the edge of the peat bog, Algy perched on a low branch still covered with autumn leaves despite the recent storm.

Suddenly, the sun managed to squeeze through a small gap in the extensive cloud cover and there was a glorious burst of light which made all the colours around Algy sing. Algy just couldn't help himself… Opening his beak as wide as he could he started to sing too, if you could call it that, because on this occasion he was pretending to be a trumpet…

[Algy is attempting a rendition of the jazz standard Autumn Leaves, as played here in an early recording by that great jazz legend Miles Davis.]

[maeamian]

Happy Bogust everyone!!

[character-of-all-time]

ROUND 3: 1925 TRISTATE TORNADO (sky) VS SPHAGNUM MOSS (bog)

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Solarpunk Sunday Suggestion:

Educate yourself about the importance of peatland and mangrove ecosystems

[wildoute]

[vamprisms]

grass isn't enough i need to touch peat bog

[shadesofmauve]

Becoming one with the bog

It was technically a 'poor fen', not a bog in the strictest sense, because it's ground-and-surface water fed, not reliant entirely on rain. It's still on the acid side of neutral and dominated by sphagnum moss. The acid and lack of oxygen in the water mean the plant matter doesn't fully decay, which forms the 'peat' of the peat bog, and the sphagnums help make sure it all stays that way.

The peat fen is a sensitive ecosystem, and it's totally possible to sink one of the 'dry' feeling hummocks (they're NOT dry, they're lying; sphagnum can hold a huge amount of water), so you don't walk from hummock to hummock; you avoid them and wade through the water and mud.

It makes very satisfying SSHCHLORP and GLOOOP sounds, stealthily tries to eat your feet if you stand still too long, and it bounces. The ground was actually something like 20 feet below us; we were walking on the peat. I think they said that 90% of the water was in that peat, with 5% below and 5% above. Not sure I've got the numbers right, but picture a giant neutrally buoyant sponge. With a landscape on top of it. It is sproingy.

Bounce, and the shrubs and stunted trees bounce with you, or whatever that saying is.

We saw three species of carnivorous plants. I didn't get a picture of the bladderwort, but the left is a Washington native sundew, and the right is sticky false asphodel, which was only discovered to be carnivorous in 2021.

I also took lots of pictures of pond lilies, which aren't specific to this environment but are really cool looking:

They also make it warmer inside their flowers. That's part of why all the lil' bugs are there! Pond lilies be making it cozy. Swamp lantern (skunk cabbage) also generate heat — and they create their own little 'wells'; clear space in the sphagnum hummocks. None of my pictures captured it well, but it's quite weird. Like little variations on the massive "plant shaping it's environment" theme that the sphagnum moss started.

And that, it turns out, is the true lure and danger of the fen. Not just that it could schloop you under (I only fell on my ass once, and it was sproingy). Not will-o-the-wisps. No, the true mystery is the sphagnum hillocks themselves.

Mounds of moss rising a foot or more above the water, red, brown, chartreuse, and yellow. They look like little hills, but it's moss, moss, moss, all the way down. You can wiggle your hand right down inside it. It's incredibly soft, and it's warm.

I can just imagine someone, weary from their bog slog, starting to miss their footing in the gloop, falling prey to the siren song of the Forbidden Coziness. They lay down (crushing numerous delicate plants as they do). They wriggle in. They fall asleep.

Several thousand years later, a lucky archeologist finds another bog body.

[numbersareimaginary]

Thinking about sapient megaflora. Like those birch forests that are all connected, but, like, doing poetry n shit. Hell yeah.