Nature Notes | By Larry Penny
Likin’ Those Lichens
It’s almost impossible to find a tree in the woods or a boulder in the field locally that isn’t festooned with lichens. Lichens may be the world’s most unusual group of plants, one of the most primitive, one of the longest-living, and the only ones that are composed of two different, distantly related entities, an alga and a fungus.

On the Water | By Russell Drumm
A Cod and Blackfish Combo
If there’s a sprinkling of cod in the mix when you’re out bottom fishing for blackfish and sea bass, then winter is coming. Such is the case, although the ocean water remains relatively warm for this time of year, warm enough to put a hold on the herring migration.