Country diary: Here be monsters - less than a millimetre long | Phil Gates

Stanhope, Weardale: One of the best gifts I've ever received is a microscope. Sixty years on, it's still a wonder to watch a mini rainforest in actionIt was hard to resist running my fingers over the velvet carpet of moss that smoothed the drystone wall's jagged capstones. Six months ago, after four heatwaves and prolonged drought, these same mosses resembled brown, wizened threads of dried tobacco. Today they were an inch-tall emerald forest again, studded with yellow moss bell toadstools, saturated with overnight rain.Wall-top mosses are resilient, and so is the microscopic life that thrives on them. I collected a few soggy green cushions to investigate later, for "here be monsters", though most are less than a millimetre long. Continue reading...