Picture Dump: Signs of Gardening Part III

Yukon Gold Potatoes; April 4, 2014

Lavender; April 23, 2014

Lemon and Lime; April 24, 2014

Red Tater Harvest; April 26, 2014

Lemon and Lime; May 4, 2014

Strawberry; May 4, 2014

Melon and/or Pickle; May 4, 2014

Macro Monday {Creepy}

{To see a larger image, go here.}

{To see a larger image, go here.}

It is just a wolf spider with millions of her babies.

The first picture was actually shot by Dan using my camera. I could not keep my hands still being so close to the spider. I do not hate spiders; but, I do have a healthy fear of them. Charlotte actually taught me that we can get along with one another as long as we don't mess with them (spiders).

Slapdash Saturday (Links)

• Mouse Pincushion

  {Sewing; Pattern and Instructions; Free}

• {Now, this is my kind of ballet! Not Boring.}

Feline Friday

{To see a larger image, go here.}

Wordy Wednesday {Paw Print}

Do you think Abby Gail is trying to tell me something?

I think she is trying to tell me she wants to leave her mark.

Painting with a half wild cat is such fun. NOT!

The Life of Charlotte

One day early back in the spring time, a garden spider showed up near our back door and decided to make her home.

When it was determined that she was there to stay, we named her Charlotte after a fictional character in a book called Charlotte's Web.

She soon attracted male spiders.

And, she made beautiful signatures on rare occasions.

I noticed she did most of her rebuilding of her web in the night.

And, she grew.

I felt privileged to have witnessed the next event. She molted.

{Note: this is not my garden spider; but, that of another nearby. You can see the exoskeleton on the right.}

It was one gruesome event to witness. I did not think to grab my camera as I honestly thought she was dying; but, it turned out that she just grew rapidly and needed out of her exoskeleton. In the course of research, the males provides protection while the female molts. I learned something new.

And, she feasted. And, grew.

The males cautiously got closer. She had three altogether at one point.

And one by one, the males disappeared until only one was left.

He got lucky.

And, she was kind to him as he lived out the rest of his life (two days) on her web.

She grew enormous.

She soon made her first egg sac.

{She was putting on the finishing touches early in the morning and soon went back to her web.}

She laid a total of two egg sacs.

On September 17th, not long after she laid her second egg sac, I discovered she packed up her web and moved.

And, I knew.

Like Charlotte of Charlotte's Web, She was dying.

In my heart of hearts, I wanted to know what happened to her. So, I looked.

I found her temporarily ensconced underneath a pad used for gardening and over a bucket.

And, she moved overnight to her final resting place and spun her last beautiful web.

She was located between the end of our farm table and several pallets.

She died in peace on September 21st. She lived a full life.

And, hopefully the cycle of life will begin anew early next spring via her eggs.

I am so thankful for her bravery (she put up with us) and the privilege of observing her life. I have learned so much about spiders through her.

Slapdash Saturday (links)

• 11 Problems Only Perfectionists Understand

  {Is this you? Dan (my husband) was reading it along with me and he pointed at number 9 and then pointed at me. Oh Bother! <-- Remember Pooh?}

• The Sacred Sewing Room Tour

  {A pretty cool thing to do! You will need to dig around on the site to see before and after pictures.}

  This year, the Sacred Sewing Room program is embarking on a national tour to create a unique, beautiful and inspirational sewing room in five shelters across the country. Through this program, shelter residents will learn sewing basics that they can then use as a coping mechanism, an expression of creativity and a way to build a better future.

• Our Daily Bread: Rooted

  {Devotional; Inspirational; Christian}

  Others can teach us the principles of their faith, but each of us must come individually to a lasting and personal faith in Christ. For faith to be real, it must become our own.

Feline Friday

I have been finding Gracie in the most interesting spots of late. I was walking towards the master bedroom and looked down to spy this:

She had wormed her way into my temporary beading storage container. It is my fault for not putting the lid back on. (I am going through the beads and emptying out the beading storage boxes). Gracie adores boxes, containers and more with stuff in them and prefers them over empty ones.

She looked so happy and at peace.

And, her pillow was a bag of beads.

Wordy Wednesday (Creepy Scene)

{To see a larger image, go here.}

I thought this was a creepy scene when I opened up the picture to view. We rarely get fog out here these days. It was taken as the sun was rising on May 21, 2014.

(I am way behind in processing pictures which is the reason for the picture dump posts).

As you can see, the potatoes in the garden bed were thriving back then and we had a lovely harvest of red taters.

Picture Dump: Birds of Spring and Summer

I have already posted pictures of hummingbirds here and here. I also posted a couple pictures of both Red Wing Blackbirds and House Finches here.

Meadowlarks. Shot on March 18, 2014

For some odd reason, the second picture is a favorite of mine.

Scissortails. Shot on April 13, 2014

These were my first somewhat successful attempt to get pictures of these flighty birds.

Another Scissortail. Shot on May 31, 2014

Roadrunner. Shot on July 28, 2014

Cardinal babies. Shot on July 29, 2014

Cardinal baby. Shot on July 31, 2014

The parents of the cardinal babies. Shot on July 31, 2014

The last baby fledged from the nest in the afternoon on July 31, 2014.

I witnessed the event and it was ever so cool. It just bravely took off from a branch, sailed and did a slow fall to the ground. The baby could not quite fly; but, the Mama bird was anxious to get it moving.

It was one tired baby after it went across the entire back yard. (We have just over an acre of land). She hopped across barb wire fencing and attempted several times to get into the tree and finally managed to hop across the long thick grape vine branch and settled herself in the tree. Once she got to that spot, she refused to budge.