Arachno, no, yes actually, I like spiders....

It's a funny thing, Mother Nature.  First truly foggy morning of the Autumn.  Heavy dew, and the mist visible half-way down the garden, but somehow moves away and sneaks up behind you as you walk towards it...  As I got to the 'orchard' to let the hens out I was charmed by the work the spiders had done overnight.  I'm sure the cobwebs weren't there yesterday...

One cobweb in particular had me marvelling at it in wonder.  It was a long single thread, hanging overhead between two apple trees, and a good 5 paces distance.  The thread was jewelled with tiny dew drops and if there hadn't been so much mist obscuring the light I'd have got my camera out.  As it was I got my 7 yr old son to have a look at it and we both wondered together how did the spider do that?  Did it get a lift with a bird, did it have special springy feet, or did it have a mini helicopter to help it?  We'll never know, and I think I like it all the more for that.

But it didn't stop there.  Whilst I was walking the dog round the cricket/playing fields in Faringdon, I noticed more cobwebs.  Were they there yesterday?  I couldn't say.  It wasn't foggy yesterday, and I did the same circuit with the dog, but were there this many cobwebs then?

Funnel cobwebs in the long grass by the skate park.  Classic cobwebs everywhere glistening with the moisture from the air.  And cobwebs that seemed to want to hold the thistle seed heads in on themselves, cobweb blankets filled with fluffy stuff, thistle-down smothered in silken threads.  Why did they do that?  Why now?

I'll take my camera tomorrow, and see what I can snap, but I'm certain the light this morning wouldn't have been any good.

ttfn.  Kat  :)

today in photographs...

Too tired to write today.  Been on an energy drop, but not like I'm coming down with something.  May be one of these peri-menopausal symptoms, so I'm for an early night and will see how it goes tomorrow.

My dog.

On our dogwalk on the 'Letcombe Loop' this afternoon I noticed a snail party...

... and then the bales lined up quite pleasingly ...

When we got home we had a cup of tea, and a piece of cake (which I'd made earlier)... here's what's left...

The apples in the bowl behind the cake are from my garden - and we can't keep up with them, if you want some, just drop round, help yourselves, fight the wasps...

night night y'all,  Kat.  :)

The turn of the year

It's that time again.  The nights are drawing in.  My hens go to roost earlier each night, and if I'm late in getting to the bottom of the garden to shut them in, it's already dark - and it's only 8pm.

We're down to three hens at the moment.  One of the speckeldy's died 25th August.  I'd spotted her going downhill on the Thursday, usual signs, mucky back end, listlessness, isolating behaviour.  But the timing of helping them on their way is never easy, and I'd given her a day too long, and we had guests that weekend, so finding an appropriate moment to do the deed was going to be difficult, and when I let them out on the Sunday, she'd died in the night.  At least she was with her friends, and although it saved me from a task which I am prepared to do, but don't enjoy, I still felt sorry to see her go.

Now when I let them out in the morning there's a chill in the air. No more wandering down the garden in my pyjamas, crocs and cotton dressing gown...  there's an image to wrestle with in your mind now!  No.  Now it's time for the fleecy dressing gown.  And anorak over that if it's raining.  And wellies if the weather's dire.  And I have been known in snow to put salopettes and ski jacket on over my pj's, and team that up with my snowboots to boot.

There's still a glut of apples in the garden, but the blackberries round and about have gone over. Last week when I was walking the dog I didn't have any containers to pick blackberries into.  I have, on the odd occasion, used dog poop bags (clean of course!), but kept promising myself I'd bring a container and do it properly.  Too late.

This morning the blackberries were soggy.  Not just from the recent rainfall, but from over-ripeness.  They burst upon touching them, and were somehow reluctant to yield, to give in and let me pick them.  How then to describe the clumps of them, the clusters, bunches, branches, droplets, drooplets, danglers, jam-jars brambles of them?  Sadly too late to now to bring in the bounty, they've turned mildewy, and gone mouldy with their lushness....

Still, the spiders were the ones to benefit.  More cobwebs than I've seen for a while, and although the wasps weren't buzzing, they were feasting, and close by them were the flies, disturbed by my reaching hand.. no rich pickings for me this time.  I've had my lot, and safely banked it in the freezer.

Pegasus, Woking

TTFN.  Kat  :)