Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Close-up encounters

It's been too long. I haven't blogged for a few weeks. I just don't have the heart to take my camera outside and wander around. Too painful. We water our plants in the early morning, sometimes before daybreak. They're alive. That's pretty much it. The rest of the day we stay inside due to the heat.

I know nature works in cycles. This drought won't last forever. We've been through some before, although not this bad. The rains will return. They always do.

Wonderfully, this afternoon, I felt a little of my spirit return. I walked across the street to check on my neighbor's cat, Tack (short for "attack" cat), who primarily stays under the bed. All day. After I'd made sure her food and water dishes were full, I filled up two jugs and carried them outside to water some potted plants. As I poured water on some little yellow flowers, a pair of bees caught my eye. I paused and watched as one bee kept a territorial guard over the flowers. As soon as the other bee landed on a bloom, the guard bee would buzz over and literally bump it off. I laughed. I'd seen the same bee behavior around some of our salvia blooms. It's funny to watch.

Back at the house and before supper, I looked down the dining room floor and saw....


....this big, beautiful wolf spider lady. Isn't she gorgeous? Those are an assortment of dead isopods (pillbugs) around her. Please pay no mind to them! I'll clean them up. I promise!


Then I walked outside to hang a hummingbird feeder back up and spotted a mosquito-looking insect on the woolly butterfly bush. Hmmm. But it couldn't be a mosquito because it was feeding on a bloom! Time to get the camera, Sheryl. Time to investigate!


I'm guessing it's a longlegged fly species. However, it's feeding on a flower, not aphids or some other tiny insect. I may be incorrect in my guess. I need to do a little more research...

And boy, did it feel GREAT to feel curious and be in our Wildscape again!

1 comment:

kristin ames said...

Chad and I had a female wolf spider move in with us. We named her, 'Charlie.' She loved our bathroom and loved to scare me in the morning by running over my foot. Chad kept moving her outside, but she would always make her way back. I think she loved Chad because she nested above his head over our bed!

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