Lichen what I see

The forest was bathed in dazzling sunlight, as if it were spring; a radiant sun shone through a near clear blue sky, sending beams shooting through the canopy casting shadows and suffusing the woods in bright splendour. Starting on the high open heathland we made our way towards the edge of plateau and hillside that would lead to the woodland below; we walked through an expanse of heather between which the surface was covered in lichens and mosses. The clumps of mosses and lichens, multi layered and of abundant varieties, appeared vibrantly coloured amongst the heathers in their winter cloths and extended across the flat expanse in all directions bringing this open winter landscape, asleep on the whole, to life. Occasional flowering gorse bushed added to the colour and texture of the scene whilst deer brought animation as they bounced their way across this panorama.

This tundra like surface continued until the base of the slope, the lichens becoming scarcer as the heathland gave way to woodland fringed by a small creek, shallow and broad for its size. Following the insubstantial creek as it became narrower and deeper before disappearing in to the darker confines of a pine plantation. We walked on through the woods, passed massive oaks that rose majestically to create high cathedral styled canopies spreading dappled light across the boscage. Gnarly holly trees, gnawed and disfigured by hungry ponies, filled the under story with distorted forms. On past the illustrated tree, its patterned surfaces dulled by the damp of recent days, before, visors down, we emerged into the open and dazzling light and expansive heathland. Up, back onto the plateau where we were reacquainted with the fantastic vista over the forest afforded us by height and the clarity of the day; the view transcending county boundaries.