There is painfully little going on in the natural world, as chillier weather and an inordinate amount of writing have descended. I'm hiking far fewer miles... OK, meters... than I'd like and, all too often, the only nature I'm able to document is that seen through the kitchen window, on the trek to the wood pile, and down the driveway to fetch the paper, the mail, and my granddaughter, delivered to the bus then retrieved nearly eight hours later. But "painfully little" does not mean nothing at all, and on the rocks and tree stumps, that symbiotic partnership of algae and fungi known as a lichen continues to flourish in the cold. The name of this foliose species is elusive—translation: I just don't know—but, as always, it's wonderful good fun leafing through the nearly 800 pages of The Lichens of North America on an identification hike.