Visual Description: Having fun-gi with algae!
NIRLE = LINER, NECHE = HENCE, TUACIQ = ACQUIT, CICIAD = ACIDIC — Giving us: LNHECTII
Clue/Question: The reindeer ate the growth on the tree bark and were – – –
Answer: “LICHEN“ IT
(I’m LIKIN’ IT, aka: LIKING IT, myself! It’s a great pun! I’m not really a big fan of lichen though, but I know it’s a necessary part of nature. I can’t imagine it tastes all that great though. Ugh! There were no new clue words today, although they are all words we haven’t seen in a while. All of the jumbles came up as new though. Great answer letter layout. Fun cartoon. I guess deer do eat this stuff, although I can’t believe this stuff is their first choice. The deer around me eat just about everything else though. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Good pun! I solved this quickly and then thought, “Huh? I don’t get it.” My problem: I thought LICHEN was pronounced rhymes-with-pitchin’. Took a few seconds and then the light bulb came on. Ooooooooh. So I learned something today.
OMG! I can’t believe I just saw the answer. I got confused on dates.
OH MY WORD, and I just realized that i was really confused on my clue letters. The only thing I did right on the wonderful jumble was gettingt the clue words correct!
At first I was certain my paper had messed up the circles on ACIDIC as i had no C. Thank goodness I called them past their business hours!! I brought down an A instead of the C in ACQUIT!!
It was certainly one of those days.
Maybe I’ll take a nap! 🙂 LL
What would we do without LindaLee? — YUR 🙂