Tag Archives: photos

Green MONSTER

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Have you ever seen a Green Lynx spider? I hadn’t until this morning when I saw this Godzilla-sized bright green monster watching me through the patio doors.

I took a photo and then calmly moved him to a safer (for him) location. Peucetia viridans, the Green Lynx spider, is bright green and usually found on green plants. That makes sense since he was right next to a young orange tree I have on the deck. It’s the largest North American species in the family Oxyopidae. The body was about and inch in length and the legs were more than THREE inches long. It was HUGE.

Green Lynx spiders are non-poisonous and rarely bite humans but the bite can be painful. Females, when threatened, are known to spit venom from their fangs (up to 8 inches). If venom enters the eye, it may cause irritation.

My DIL is deathly afraid of spiders, more so than anyone I’ve ever known. On a recent visit, my son and I were enjoying a quiet cuppa and some morning chat about the kids when we heard her screaming, I mean like blood-curdling screams, the kind that, if they heard, neighbors would call 911.

My Angel Boy ran up to see what was going on and I followed. Apparently, she had been on a Zoom call in AB 2.0’s bedroom when she noticed a VERY VERY large spider on his bedspread.

After we ushered her to another room so she could calm down and resume her call, we then searched high and low for the offending arachnid and couldn’t find a thing. I thought her screams might have scared him off, but my son said he actually had seen it before scurrying away and it was literally four inches in size.

We needed to keep looking because if there WAS still a spider in the little guy’s room, we needed to find and relocate it before bedtime.

I stripped the sheets off the bed, shook them out, and found nothing. We removed the top mattress and then the box springs and OMG, there it was, trying to make itself as small as possible in the corner of the bed frame. I didn’t have my phone to take a photo but you can trust me that it was one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen.

We ushered it into a box, clamped on the lid, and my son took it outside as far away from the house as he could, while I remade the bed and checked to make sure DIL hadn’t had a heart attack from fright.

I wonder what she would have thought of my Green Lynx with those scary, hairy legs watching her through the window?

The Annular Solar Eclipse

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I couldn’t find the special eclipse glasses we used in 2017 even though I know I saved them, so I used a colander and it made some really awesome crescents on a white background. The sun was only about 70% obscured here, no ring of fire, but super cool to safely experience.

Here’s a relevant poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919) 

A SOLAR ECLIPSE

In that great journey of the stars through space
    About the mighty, all-directing Sun,
    The pallid, faithful Moon, has been the one
Companion of the Earth. Her tender face,
Pale with the swift, keen purpose of that race,
    Which at Time’s natal hour was first begun,
    Shines ever on her lover as they run
And lights his orbit with her silvery smile.

Sometimes such passionate love doth in her rise,
    Down from her beaten path she softly slips,
And with her mantle veils the Sun’s bold eyes,
    Then in the gloaming finds her lover’s lips.
While far and near the men our world call wise
    See only that the Sun is in eclipse.

From Seed to Harvest | The Essential and Humble Beet

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Have you ever grown beets? They’re humble and rustic, sweet and solid, packed full of heart healthy nutrition, even the leaves.

Beets are full of antioxidants that fight cell damage and reduce the risk of heart disease. They’re one of the few vegetables that contain betalains, a powerful antioxidant that gives beets their vibrant color. Betalains reduce inflammation and may help protect against cancer and other diseases.

No part of this beauty is wasted, whether it’s cooked or shaved raw in a salad.

My mom used to make borscht, a Ukrainian cold beet soup, because my dad loved it, but I thought it looked and tasted disgusting, especially since she topped it with a dollop of sour cream.

I now think that I might have been mistaken about my revulsion for borscht, well maybe…except for the sour cream, which I still don’t like.

I’ll scrub and slice the beets, then steam them with the leaves just until tender, to enjoy eating unadorned just like they are, fresh and wholesome. YUM!

Purple + White

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Doomed to live and die on the same day, the morning glory is a symbol of resilience and rebirth.

This enchanted morning glory is thriving near a bunch of Natal plum bushes and their fragrant white five-petaled flowers.

The Natal plum is a tropical shrub grown mostly as a flowering landscape specimen, but also known for its small fruits which taste like cranberries and are used in jams and jellies.

Once upon a time when I was in high school, I picked a bushel of the fruits from an empty field and made the most delicious jam but the thorns on the plant almost tore my arms up so I’ve never done it again.

This is a Blue Potato Bush: The flowers are gorgeous but all parts of this part are toxic!

The sweetly scented flowers of Lycianthes rantonnetii, also known as Solanum rantonnetii, blue potato bush, and Paraguay nightshade, grows near a fence in the garden. I cut it back every year which it seems to love because it returns full of flowers that attract bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.

Hello Kitty Sunset 🎀 | Pink Pink Pink

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Or cotton candy pink. A trivial confession about me…I’ve never actually eaten cotton candy. I’ve seen it made at the fair but I never had any desire to taste it. I do love Hello Kitty, though, and she speaks to me:

“Once upon a time, there was a princess.” — Hello Kitty

Last night’s sunset was breathtaking to experience. The sky colors were pure Hello Kitty pink.

I didn’t make it to the beach in time to see the full sunset drop into the horizon, but I went outside in the garden to appreciate all of the resplendent Hello Kitty pink gloriousness.

Spooky Creepy Spider Webs

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It was so foggy last night that I could barely see across the street. This morning it revealed hundreds of spider webs shrouding my garden.

I’m all ready for Halloween!

Here are just a few…

The spider webs are literally EVERYWHERE. I hadn’t noticed them before today.

I almost walked right into this one but I looked up just in time to snap a photo. If you look closely, you can see the beaded foggy drops sparkle like diamonds.

No spider web, just three dewdrops on a grape leaf…it looks like rain but it’s created by dense fog.

A Very Very LONG Lizard

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I didn’t have time to grab a ruler or measuring tape but this lizard was LONG. I actually first thought it was a snake, but my gaze followed the tail all the way to its body. I see these guys every so often, but they’re not as common around here as the smaller ones.

The California Alligator Lizard was named after its large head and big jaws. The alligator lizard really looks like a mix-up between a lizard and a snake with a body twelve inches long or more and most of its size made up of its tail. They’re yellowish-tan with black stripes and a gray belly.

Alligator lizards are carnivores that eat insects, ground beetles, crickets, hornworms, and grasshoppers. They are opportunistic feeders that take advantage of any resource they can find, including cannibalizing their own kind if that’s the most convenient food source. Whatever they catch and can swallow whole is considered fair game, from tiny flies to baby mice.

I read that they bite when cornered, so I’m glad I didn’t get too close. I was once bitten by a smaller lizard that I tried to rescue and that hurt a LOT. I can’t possibly imagine how I’d get this big one off if he latched on to my hand. You can read about that other time HERE.

Day Moon Portfolio

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I think today is a day I should try to not further agitate the cosmos and the gods.

I had an appointment for yearly lab work so I fasted from about 7pm last night with ZERO coffee this morning. I don’t mind not eating, but I NEED coffee to start my day.

I arrived at the office on time only to discover that I had misread the doctor’s orders and needed the labwork completed NEXT week, not today.

Not today. My coffee-deprived brain had a difficult time comprehending, as I don’t usually make dumb mistakes like that, but when the technician explained it to me, I realize it was entirely my fault which wasn’t a big deal, but sometimes the little screw-ups hit different, you know what I mean?

It tilted my reality for a minute or two until I regained my mental equilibrium. I drove all the way back home, inhaled some French roast, and looked outside to discover the most beautiful day moon staring back at me, possibly to let me know that it was confused, too,

I love day moons because they make absolutely no sense to me, but I’m over the moon (haha) with these photos because I was unable to see the full moon a couple days ago due to overcast skies at night.

Day moons are cool.

Save a Life 🐝

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Since I was fortunate enough to NOT die last week and still slightly anxious from that near-death event, I stayed home this morning.

As I was taking out the trash, I saw a single bee on the deck. I crouched down to get a better look at the little guy and while he was still moving, he seemed lethargic and tired, but not dead, thank goodness.

I ran inside to get a shallow plate which I filled with sugar water, placed a rock in the center, and brought out a toothpick. I set the plate near the little bee and watched as he took a couple of sips from the drops hovering at the end of the toothpick.

I scooped him up with a seashell and placed him on the rock in the plate. After the thirsty little guy drank a bit more of the sweetness, he gathered enough energy to buzz away.

There are no pics of that miracle because I was too intensely focused on bee rescue, but I felt really good about the outcome especially since I’m allergic to bees and have always been afraid of them.

Bees are incredibly hard workers and if you do find a bee on the ground for an extended period of time, then in most cases there is nothing wrong with the bee. It simply needs a little rest. It’s pretty easy to revive tired and exhausted bees. A simple solution of white sugar and water can work wonders to give them the energy they need to fly away. 🐝

Sunday Vibes

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I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree. –Joyce Kilmer

I looked up from weeding the veg garden at green leaves and the bluest sky kissed by the sun. There’s a bird singing somewhere in there but I couldn’t locate it.

Had to snap a pic before this ash tree loses all its leaves for the season in the process called abcission. I wrote about that here: https://enchantedseashells.com/2020/11/20/the-process-of-abscission/

#SundayVibes