Misty & mossy mountains in Bergen

Mossy walk discovering some new creatures.

There is a meme about bird watching creeping up on you as you grow older – in my case it’s moss.

Possibly Cladonia furcata?

Luckily I live in a cold and damp city. (Normally. This walk was a week ago, when wheather was normal for this time of year.)

Up into the mist at Mount Fløyen.

My house is close to Prom’s gate, one of the stations for the funicular to Mount Fløyen, and that means being cold and damp is easily within reach.


Fairytale place innit.

We used the trail behind the ridge close to Bjørnebu – on the map it’s the area behind the giant squirrel’s butt. The trail goes off the main path, and winds back and forth around the ridge.

More about the process behind creating the Fløyen map on my work page.

A skeleton turtle-heldgehog?

I was hoping to encounter something moss’y and lichen’y that would spark some sketching, and we did meet a few creatures. And some wonderful habitats.

Cladonia cristatella or cladonia floerkeana in all its glory. (Thank you my Instagram helpers!)

Dotting on some colours while having rest in Bjørnebu. Sketch paper going all blotchy, plein air painting not really being a thing in Bergen – for obvious reasons.

Coming home from our short but long hike I continued in my sketchbook, without really knowing where I was headed, but recorded the mossy turtle-hedgehog, and the different lichen.

Then this creature popped up in its Cladonia furcata hair and Lobaria pulmonaria vest.

Colour studies done on copy paper because then I won’t mind if I ruin it.

Meet the new moss creature! I don’t have a name for this little sprite yet, give me a shout if anyone wants to name it.

Thanks again to my good helpers on Instagram that helped with taxonomy of the lichen I had photographed. I’ll probably be in want of your research skills again after future encounters with exciting bracken;)