.
It took me a long time to paint the lichen but obviously not as long as it took to grow on the rock .
I studied the pattern of tiny fronds, embroidered together in crusty clusters of frosty blue-green rock barnacles.
I painted for hours but I could not approach the detail I was seeing in the patch the size of a fried egg.
There is a seemingly visible yet infinite (and uncontainable) world contained in just the smallest patch of what I'm told is a fungus/alga combo.
I look down on this medieval micro-metropolis of craggy towers and crowded dwellings . A complicated community of common diversity.
A symbiotic relationship too complex to understand (or paint apparently ).
A knotted rug 'landing-pad' for dragonflies to alight upon.
