The Queen of Seaford: spiders

Showing posts with label spiders. Show all posts

Sunday, November 2, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 44

Welcome back to another summary of the week's photos. More photos of autumn are included in the collection.

Day 300-

I have three Drift roses bushes near the front door, and they are really reliable bloomers. They are black spot resistant. The variety I have is 'Popcorn'. They will bloom until late November/ December.

Roses

Day 301-

For most of October, we didn't have any rain, then we had four days of rain. There is riprap along the roadway to mitigate erosion, and this day, there was a lot of rainwater rushing downhill along the road. A rapid rushing of water cascading down, into the riprap and through the culverts, into the lake.

Water

Day 302-

Many of my hostas are on the deck, away from the deer and their nibbling. I have some hostas in the garden and before the cold weather came, those hostas looked like celery stalks stuck in the ground.

End of a Season

Day 303-

Our Kmart in town closed several years ago, and a U-Haul storage place and rental facility moved in. The parking lot is sloped, and I was surprised that the storage units were placed so that the front of the unit was not even with the ground.

Storage on an incline

Day 304-

Remember the beautiful roses from a few days ago (see above)? The deer are very hungry. They nibbled almost every rose and rosebud off the shrubs. My poor rose bushes look like Morticia Addams pruned every single stem.

Morticia Addams did my pruning

Day 305-

In the fall we get a lot of spider webs but I think these Funnel weaver spider webs are so interesting. They are a very tight funnels, though I rarely see the spider that makes these.

Funnel weaver spider web

Day 306-

I have a variety of Camellias in the garden. Most of the ones I have are Camellia sasanquas, blooming anytime from September through December. This beauty is Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more Camellias. There are lots of pollinators who like these beauties.

Camellia sasanqua 'Ashley Eden'

And now for a few of the not chosen photos-

Possumhaw holly, or Ilex decidua. It is in berry at the corner of my septic drain field.

This is the dogwood that grows along my driveway. The colors of the leaves almost make it look like candy corn. The colors of our fall foliage always makes me happy.

Raindrops on Edgeworthia leaves. The leaves are a little fuzzy and the raindrops sit on the top of the leaf.

Afternoon light shines through the trees along the driveway.

That's all for this week, hope you liked the chosen and not chosen photos. Come back again next week.

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 38

As fall comes, there is a big change in my garden. Orb Weaver spiders and fall colors on the deciduous trees and shrubs.

Day 258-

Large spider webs in the garden appear in the fall. The Orb Weavers put their webs up at night and generally take them down in the morning. That's a lot of work each and every night! This one was quite large, the circle was probably about two feet across. It was also across the middle of the yard, so the spider had to secure its web from the Magnolia tree to the right and the house on the left.

Spider Season

The color version of this photo wasn't as impressive as the black and white one.

Day 259-

I have multiple Oakleaf hydrangeas in the yard. Three of them are in the front yard, they are Hydrangea quercifolia 'Ruby Slippers'. They really live up to their name in the fall. Their fall color is so vibrant, it really pops in the garden. The dog hair is an added bonus!

Ruby Slippers with Dog hair

Day 260-

We live in an area where active timber harvesting is year-round. The log trucks are often overfilled. One doesn't want to follow too closely behind these loads.

Log Truck

Day 261-

When I went out front to play frisbee and rings with the dogs, there was a tiny gray feather that I just had to get a photo of. Fiona is a bit of a vacuum cleaner- she will inhale anything unusual on the ground, especially if you wanted to give it a closer look. I needed to get my photo quickly. Not sure what bird lost this feather.

Tiny Feather

Day 262-

We made a quick trip to Nashville for the weekend. This was the sunset reflecting off the buildings of downtown. Grandson (five years old) was having soccer practice on the field with views of the city.

Sunset

Day 263-

With the kids going to school and parents working, Charlie and I played tourist for the day and went to the Grand Ole Opry for the backstage tour. If you are ever in Nashville, it is a good tour to take. I really marveled at the size of the stage where "Hee Haw" was filmed. It seemed rather small. We walked through the building to the main stage. The photo was taken of the ropes and cables of backstage where the Opry is performed. The black and white image shows all the shadows and shapes.

Backstage

My first thought for the photo of the day was in the entrance area. The lights with all the guitars were an interesting photo. All these guitars are Gibsons, donated by the company.

Day 264-

Coming home from the above mentioned grandson's soccer game we encountered this trolley. It made me laugh, the name on the trolley was "Trolley Parton". These trollies circle through town, where you can do a pub crawl of different breweries. Always something to see in Nashville.

Trolley Parton

Another week done! It is fun to gather photos from trips out of town. My day-to-day experiences at home center on the yard and garden. See you next week.

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 33

Another week has come and gone, and I still haven't shared the discarded photos. I have amassed many of them. My thought now is whether or not to include the chosen photo along with the ones not chosen. Moving forward, I will include them in the weekly round-up of photos. Not every day has a few photos from which to choose.

If you follow along on Facebook with the daily photo-a-day posts, you might have noticed I misnumbered the photos again. Not sure where my head is!! The numbers have been corrected, and I will try to be more careful about the numeral that goes with the photo.

Day 223-

I was gathering items for donation and going through 'treasure boxes' in my closet and I found my Girl Scout sash. After posting it on Facebook, I received several fellow Scouts who also had their sashes. I thought I still had my GS Handbook, but after searching, I couldn't find it. There are a couple of bins that I haven't gone through where it might be, but if it isn't there, I am out of ideas of where it might be. So for now, hope springs eternal that it is somewhere to be found. I will let you know if I find it.

Achievements

photo not chosen- this ant was carrying its dead 'friend' across the driveway, moving quickly. I chose the sash over the ant.

Day 224-

We get a lot of spiders in the landscape in the fall. My girlfriend in NY asked if this was one of the Jojo spiders. I am not sure, I wish I had taken more photos of it to get another view, but I didn't. So for this spider, it will just be listed as a spider.

Spider

photo not chosen- raindrops on a spider web over an Iris. An interesting photo, but, eh, not chosen.

Day 225-

We have had so much rain this month. 10.27" so far and we are only a little past halfway through the month. Our average for August is 3.92". With that rain comes some amazing skies. Clouds always fascinate me,

Strange Skies

photo not chosen- I did crop and adjust the lighting for this photo. What I saw in the sky wasn't as vibrant in the photo.

Day 226-

We were in the parking lot at the grocery store and the truck next to us had HUGE tires. Thought it would make a good photo. Making it black and white added to the depth of the tread.

Tire

photo not chosen- I needed to crop and add the black and white filter. With the tire and the asphalt it doesn't look too different, but the truck is a dark blue.

Day 227-

While walking Fiona during a break from the rain, I noticed this stump that has put forth a lot of new growth with all the rain. Hardwoods will continue to sprout from a stump. Cutting like this is called 'coppicing'. Some trees are coppiced to harvest young wood. Oak, hazel, ash, willow, and chestnut are good trees to coppice. This one is an elm. Not a practice I recommend for the average garden. Pines do not sprout like hardwoods.

Coppiced

No extra photos to consider for this day.

Day 228-

Like I said, lots of rain! I was trying to get the wind and the rain in the photo, but no, just a gray, subdued photo.

Rainy night

Again, no extra photos for this day.

Day 229-

We have lots of Goldenrod coming up in our yard. The sun was just hitting the almost open blooms, and it seemed to glow. I imagine this is Solidago altissima, as it is so tall. Also near the Goldenrod are some Golden Asters. They have not begun to bloom yet.

Goldenrod Aglow

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the discarded/rejected photos for the daily offering. There are still a few I want to share in a post that I disregarded from earlier this year. Thanks for reading this week.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Photo-a-Day Week 22

This week, a large number of insects were observed. With the changing season into summer, more blooms and more little creatures fill the garden. So without further ado, let's talk about this week's photos.

Day 146-

A few years ago, one of my blogging friends told me these were not Daddy Longlegs but Harvestmen. I had never heard of Harvestmen. Harvestmen are closely related to scorpions, not spiders. They can't spin webs. Their bodies are not segmented like a spider's. Harvestmen also lack venom. We have lots of these around the house and yard.

Harvestmen

Day 147-

Another interesting insect is the Tarnished Plant Bug. I was taking pictures of the Fleabane, Erigeron sp., when I zoomed in, I saw this insect. I like the design on the back of its body, it looks like a heart or a "V". The bronze coloring is interesting as well. It is the first time I have seen this variety of insect.

Tarnished Plant Bug on Fleabane

Day 148-

We had more rain this month than usual, a lot more!! I like finding raindrops on various plants. This is a Hydrangea arborescens 'Ruby', one of the Invincible varieties. It is a lovely reddish-pink bloom. One of these days it will get planted in the garden, currently it is in a container on my deck.

Raindrops on Ruby

Day 149-

We have so many Canada Geese on the lake. My neighbor enjoys the fact that some of them nest in her yard along the waterfront. Here we have a family with four goslings.

Family

Day 150-

Hypericum frondosum 'Sunburst' is a cultivar of a native St. John Wort. The flowers are about an inch to an inch and a half. The bees love this bloom, especially bumblebees. Besides the beautiful blooms, this shrub has gorgeous fall colors.

Pom-pom

Day 151-

There's construction near where I get my hair cut. Apparently, there is a new Hilton getting built. I am not sure what these yellow items are, but they made me laugh.

Field of Minion?

Day 152-

This Painted Lady Butterfly was enjoying the nectar of one of the Stokesia laevis, or Stokes Aster. These flowers are just starting to open and they are being visited by so many pollinators. I called this one Schmetterling, which is butterfly in German.

Schmetterling

This concludes my week's photo challenge of a photo a day. Hope you liked the insects and blooms.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Homage to Monty Python

Spring is the time where we check on the life of all our emerging plant material. Some make it, some don't do quite so well. I was SURE this Amsonia hubrechtii was dead. Have another one about ten feet away that is in bloom. This was a plant for which I ordered a replacement in my winnings from John's contest. (more to follow on the goodies from that order)

The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead! [a man puts a body on the cart, unaware of the fact that the man is actually alive]
Large Man with Dead Body: Here's one.
The Dead Collector: That'll be ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. [hands the collector his money] There's your ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead!
The Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not.
The Dead Collector: He isn't.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm getting better.

True to the Monty Python scene, he wasn't dead! Or she wasn't dead...or IT wasn't dead. I was planting some newly arrived plants on Thursday and on my hands and knees right next to this 'dead' Amsonia. Look what I saw--- new growth, tiny but it was there!!

Luckily I have plenty of room for my new Amsonias.....so this one will stay put and it will fill in -- eventually.

I have been known to have a laissez faire (and here) attitude with many of my plants. Wait and see, not eager to pull, or cut, something out that isn't going gangbusters. When you wait, sometimes you are rewarded with new growth. The Gaillardia below was almost given up on. I yanked on it a few times...but it did not yield. I am pleased to say it is full of new growth.

Here, you can see it better --

The one next to it has been blooming. Funny how one is doing well and the next one is slow to emerge from dormancy.

Some plants have had a rough time because of underground critters (voles?) and some have had to struggle with their foliage being eaten by all sorts of caterpillars. Poor Osmanthus fragrans, much of its new growth is gone, eaten to a nub.

See this interesting leaf munchers/suckers I found in the garden this week......

Love the colors and design on this one...it was on my Fothergilla. Almost looks like little penguins.

Here is a full view. I do not claim to know the names of all these crawling critters, just find them interesting.