Natural objects themselves, 
even when they make no claim to beauty, 
excite the feelings, and occupy the imagination. 
Nature pleases, attracts, delights, 
merely because it is nature. 
We recognize in it an Infinite Power.
~ Karl Wilhelm Humboldt

We are from the land of active volcanoes and an island culture that puts great store in rocks. I am drawn to places with beautiful rocks. I love rocks.

Granite is a volcanic rock. Granite is the core rock of our San Bernardino Mountains, forming its backbone.

Where did all of these granite rocks come from? 

An igneous rock, granite is created by heat and pressure deep in the Earth's crust. As the crust is uplifted and eroded by mountain building processes, granites are brought to the surface and slowly and surely, it is being weathered by chemical and mechanical processes into soil.

Anyone who has tried to garden in the Valley knows that this is true.  Just when you think you've cleared out all the rocks from your garden, more pop up!

Getting back to the granite boulders on the Woodland Trail:  see how they are beautifully lichen-covered on their west side?.  Eventually, millenia from now, lichen, water, ice, wind, sun, and temperatures will reduce these rocks into soil.

What is lichen [pronounced: lye' ken]?  

Lichen is a composite plant consisting of an algae and a fungus living together in a mutually beneficial relationship.  Or, as my plant-loving husband says:

Freddy Fungus and Alice Algae 
took a  likin' (lichen) to each other. 

"Theirs is a symbiotic relationship," he explains. "Just like ours." 

One kind word can warm three winter months. 
~ Japanese Proverb

Lichen breaks the granite down by working on its surfaces. The algae photosynthesizes (makes its food with water and sun) and the fungi serves as the glue that holds them together while retaining moisture. The acids that the lichen make help to dissolve the rock, turning it into soil when the granite particles mix with decomposed organic (dead plant and animal) materials.

Meanwhile, water from rain and snow fills the cracks in the rock, and when the temperature drops, the water turns to expanding ice that fractures the granite.

Through unnumbered centuries, Nature chose lichen and water as its tools to turn hard granite into productive soil. The evidence of this patient process is all about you.  

Look down at your feet. 

The Woodland Trail that you are walking on is made out of granite that has been decomposed by Freddy Fungus, Alice Algae and water as rain, snow and ice. 

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