Xanthoria

Tall stalks of wild fennel have long memories to share, while above us black-headed gulls call insistently in the fading sky.

At sea, tiger-striped mackerels slip and shimmer through the waves, displacing the water as our feet dislodge small lichens on shore, where we listen out for story and song.

This is an edge land, where nothing stays the same for long.

In recent episodes, we mentioned a survey we've been running to find out more about your experiences of listening to As the Season Turns.

Joyous and merry, they refer to the great gatherings of people after the harvest, coming together to eat, drink and be entertained.

Time to find some shade and perhaps an ice cream before we wander down to the water's edge and walk back, wet foot on the narrow strip of sand below the shingle ridges.

Up here, where the stones are wetted not by waves but only rain or occasional sea fret, there is a miniature world of lichens, coating their surfaces with extraordinary colours and textures.

lichens of shingle coasts, cup lichen, Cladonia fimbriata, and close relatives in the Cladonia chlorophea group.