The Itsy Bitsy Spider Crawled Up The.....

When it comes to scary there are spiders and, well, there are spiders. Some are harmless little creatures just going about their daily life bearing no ill-will toward the huge, clumsy humans they encounter. And then there are...the other ones.

You know the ones I'm talking about. Those hide-in-your-shoes-waiting-for-you-to-slide-your--unsuspecting-little-tootsies-in spiders. Those running-across-the-floor-when-you-turn-on-the-kitchen-light-in-the-middle-of-the-night creatures with eight legs. Those are the types that get to me.

And let's not forget the crawl-across-your-bare-foot-while-you-are-in-the-shower-with-soap-in-your-eyes monsters. You've been there. You know them only too well.

But the ones that really get to me are those diabolical ones. I'm talking pure evil here. The mere thought of them can make you break out in a cold sweat. The absolute worst. Those hide-between-the-sheets-and-wait-for-your-warm-body-to-slide-in monsters. They are so sly. They wait for you to get nice and comfortable, warm and cozy in your safe little bed. Then you feel it. The slight touch along your leg. It is almost like a gentle tickle.

At first you think it is your imagination, but then you feel it again. It stops. You wait. It moves again. Higher. You hold your breath. You are deathly still. Visions of horror movies run through your head. You can feel it against your skin. You feel the legs touching you. Crawling. Higher. You.....

Oh!...Wait!... I'm getting off track here. I just wanted to share with you a shot of a regular garden spider. Nothing dangerous here, folks. It may look a bit scary, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't harm you despite its sheer size and those hideous hairy legs.

Then again it probably wouldn't hurt anything if you made a quick check between the sheets before you go to bed tonight. You never can tell.

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The Art of Lazy

Now isn't some good old procrastination an ultimate form of lazy? At least with us humans it seems that way. Even the definition of procrastination refers to lazy. Procrastination: The act of postponing, delaying of, putting off, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.

By way of example may I present to you the following excerpts from numerous exchanges between the MOH (male of household) and the FOH (female of household) about a particular heavy duty chain. (You will note that no names are used. Let's just keep it that way, OK?)

1988
MOH: 'I'll just hang this right here in the crook of this tree for now so I will remember where it is. '
FOH: 'You probably should go ahead and put it in the garage.'
MOH: 'Yeah. I'll get it later.'

1989
FOH: 'Honey, don't you think you should put that chain in the garage?'
MOH: 'Yeah. Probably so. I'll get to it this weekend.'

1990
FOH: 'How many times do I have to tell you that you need to move that chain?'
MOH: 'Don't worry. I'll get around to it.'

1991 - 1998
(A basic recycling of previous years' comments, but less frequently. You know the routine.)

2002
MOH: 'Honey, do you know where that chain we had is? I can't find it anywhere.'
FOH: 'I'm sure it is right where you left it.'
MOH: (upon finding said chain exactly where he left it) 'OH CRAP!'

(Well, it was something like that. This is a family safe blog, you know.)

Now flash forward to:

October, 2008

Guess where the chain still is.

And guess where it will stay.

Around here we refer to this sight as a genuine work of art. It even has a title bestowed upon it by those familiar with the artist. The title? The Art of Pure Procrastination

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They Look Good From The Other Side, Too

I've been meaning to post a few more photo's of the flowers, but it seems I keep getting sidetracked by other things. Once it was by Something A Little Different and then the butterflies took over.

Well here are a few shots from recent visits to the neighbor's flower garden. Although I took several with the standard views it seems I have become quite attached to taking a few with the unconventional view so I thought I would share some of those with you. I think they are beautiful from both sides.


It seems the Gulf Fritillary found this one irresistible, too.

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Just Passing Through?

Back at the beginning of the summer we discovered that we had dozens of dragonflies around, particularly at the pond. Before too long I had dozens (then hundreds) of dragonfly photo's. When you add the damselfly photo's the numbers may now go into the thousands. Of course not all the photo's are of a good quality. And naturally there are quite a few that are virtually duplicates of others. I will often take multiple shots of one perched as I am approaching closer so the numbers add up fast. I realized that I had so many photo's that I might be tempted to flood the blog with dragonfly and damselfly posts and photo's at the expense of other things going on around the pond so I elected to limit my dragon and damsel posts to once a week on Monday.

Well the dragonfly and damselfly season is slowly coming to a close. There are still some around and I am still observing them and taking photo's of course. But, now that the season is closing, I figured I might as well retire the Monday Dragon/Damsel post. I will still be adding Dragon/Damsel posts in the future, but just not on a weekly schedule. Actually this will give me a chance to catch up on researching some of the behaviors I have observed and putting names with some of the species I have seen and captured.

Today I thought I would share with you a few of the butterflies we were able to capture last week at the neighbor's flower garden. We haven't seen many butterflies this summer. Well, I should say we haven't seen many congregations of butterflies. We see butterflies often, but normally they are individuals cruising about and they often don't stay in one general area long enough to track them down and get a photo.
On a couple of recent visits to the flower garden I have had a bit better luck though. There were quite a few butterflies around. The most numerous were the Gulf Fritillary. We had not seen any earlier in the summer, but all of a sudden several showed up. As a matter of fact, one day while I was there they all showed up within a matter of minutes as though they were traveling as a group.
I understand that the Gulf Fritillary is a migratory butterfly so we think the sudden arrival of several may mean they are just passing through. Whether they were residents or just passing through it was a great opportunity for a few colorful photo's.

I found it really hard to pick a favorite. I eventually decided just to make a collection with a couple of those above plus a couple of more. Of course it is best viewed enlarged.

And one more thing. I want to thank our neighbor for planting all those colorful flowers out where we can all enjoy them.

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It's Monday -Time for Dragons and Something New

I mentioned in my Dragons and Damsels post last Monday that I have been trying to take a few videos to post here on the blog. I haven't yet been able to get a satisfactory video of the damselflies which I really wanted, but I did get one of a dragonfly that I hope you will enjoy.

I don't see this particular species down at the pond very often. I think it was only the 2nd or 3rd time I had seen it and been able to get a photo. If I'm not mistaken it is a Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina). Actually it is a relatively common dragonfly, but I have not run across many of them in the immediate vicinity.


Normally most of the dragonflies I see perched on sticks and branches remain fairly still and in one position. All dragonflies hold their wings outstretched as opposed to most damselflies who fold their wings together. Some species of dragons may fold their outstretched wings forward almost as though they are wrapping them around their head. If there is a strong breeze the dragons may shift about a bit and adjust their wings to maintain their balance on a perch. Other than that there is not a lot of movement once they settle in.


I was really surprised at the movement of this dragonfly in the video. It continued to move and shift its position almost continuously even though there was only a moderate breeze and other species of dragonflies on nearby perches were relatively still. And it held its wings at a much higher angle to the body than do most of the dragons I have been observing. (By the way, watch for the other dragonflies passing in the background, too.)

Please Note: This video includes audio that can be adjusted on the video. It is not excessively loud, but you may want to adjust the initial volume settings depending on your situation.


Dragonfly - 3932 from BakerWatson on Vimeo.

In researching the species I came across an interesting comment on BugGuide. "Frequently seen perched on weeds in fields as it forages, pivoting with the wind." Perhaps this pivoting motion is a special characteristic of this species.

Whatever the reason for the constant pivoting it was interesting and gave me an opportunity to capture a variety of shots from different points of view without ever having to change positions.


I hope you enjoyed the video.

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What IS That?

I really lucked out on this week's 'What IS That?' theme for PhotoHunt. It just so happened that I had made a post with almost that exact title only a few days before I started participating in PhotoHunt. Since at that time no one took a guess on what my photo was of I decided I would wait for this week's theme to post the photo again and then provide the answer.

It's not too hard to guess what it likely is in general, but if you are like I was you probably don't know its specific name.
Now play fair and guess (at least to yourself) before you click Read More to open the rest of the post and find out what it actually is.

I'm sure many of you guessed it was some kind of plant or the flower of a plant. If you did you are correct. This is the flower of the buttonbush plant. Buttonbush is an aquatic shrub that is natural through most of the eastern USA and all the way across the south. It is hardy and grows as far north as Nova Scotia. The plant typically grows around ponds, lakes, and streams or where the soil remains moist year-around. There are 3 or 4 of the shrubs along the pond.




The bush itself is not all that pretty, but it's flower gives it a special charm all its own.





The pincushion look of the flower is unique and the honey-like fragrance makes it a favorite of butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. In fact the plant is sometimes known as the Honeyball.

Most of our buttonbushes happen to be shaded by trees along the banks so they produce a limited number of flowers. Still, they are very interesting to watch as the flowers progress through their growth cycle from small bumpy green balls to white before they then develop the white pincushion appearance. As they continue to mature their colors evolve with portions becoming a brown or orange and even almost red in some cases. Evidently there are several varieties of the bush as the placement of the balls varies among several bushes we have.

The bush provides a wide variety of benefits within its environment. Ducks and other water fowl love the seed of the bush. Many birds find its dense foliage a safe haven and a suitable nesting site. It is a fast growing shrub and its roots provide a good erosion control tool.

Buttonbush plants are good for a naturalized setting in soggy soils, quick growing, and can be pruned ruthlessly if required. We also have another bush away from the pond that has grown much larger and produces a great number of the flowers, but I think I''ll save that one for a later post.

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Weekly Theme - 'What IS That?

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Flying the Colors

The red,

white,

and blue.

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About 'Greatest Hits' Category

All bloggers have a few specifics posts that they consider their best posts. Sometimes those posts elicit a lot of comments. Sometimes they pass into oblivion with barely a murmur.

I know that blogging is normally about the 'here and now', the latest post. New visitors, however, may want to check out some of the older posts. But who has time to wander through dozens or hundreds of older posts? Wouldn't it be better to highlight some of the most entertaining and worthwhile older posts to save them time?

I decided I would classify some of the best posts into a 'Greatest Hits' category based primarily on the comments they received. This is not based on the total number of comments the post garnered, but rather the nature of the comments. Basically I selected those with a significant level of comments that indicated the visitors found the post particularly interesting or entertaining.

You will find that many of these are PhotoHunt weekly theme posts as they generally result in high visitor counts and a corresponding high number of comments. I have included some others that did not receive as many comments, but where the comments indicated the visitors truly liked the post or perhaps the photo's included. Plus, I included one or two of which I personally liked.

If you are new to the blog we hope you enjoy some of the 'Greatest Hits'. Of course we invite you visit even more posts perhaps through using the category lists for specific topics that might interest you.

Thanks for visiting our blog and please come again soon. We would love to see you.

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