Blistering Hot & Spiders!

This was Sunday's view from the ridgetop. I usually can get a decent shot from different parts of the ridge, but this year, no one on this ridge is growing soy beans. My choices to see the sun rise this year are slim. I have to walk a mile to get an open view of the sky without corn blocking my views.

Our hollow doesn't see the sun for about an hour or so after sunrise. The sun has to come up over the trees on the ridge to shine down on us. In a way I miss places I used to live where I had a fairly clear sight of the horizon. But I'm used to it now after 29 years [this coming weekend].

The humidity and fog are intense in the valleys in the morning. The shot below is from when I drove down to the gas station in Readstown for some milk. It was taken in Infrared that was the camera I had with me. The valley fog from the river was dissipating but it still makes me stop and admire it after all of these years.

Infrared Shot

Before the sun gets into our hollow, I get the chores done and make sure the tanks for the ladies have fresh water. The mules are spending a lot of time down in the Buckthorn Forest where the sun doesn't shine and there always seems to be a bit of air movement.

Our mornings have been like this muggy, foggy, and a very high dew point ---> that leads to the discomfort of being outside. If one's sweat doesn't evaporate, one does not cool off.

I did the smart thing on the hottest of days. I organized and re-organized my files regarding our financial paperwork. I need to get together with my daughter in law and have her teach [or reteach me how to do a spreadsheet]. I could do this at one time, but can't remember how to do it now. I learned over 30 years ago.

I did stuff I normally don't do until the first day of fall. I organized my 'junk' room and cleaned it up again. So I can make another mess.

My early morning walk this morning to check fences revealed that one of the critters was in a spot she wasn't supposed to be in. Tsk, tsk. After some chasing, I got her settled back with the others and moved on to go into the neighbor's large and wild meadow.

This was the view.... 

A huge meadow filled with spider webs from Orb Weavers or Orb Spiders. 

I saw it the day before when I didn't have a camera with me. I couldn't resist climbing through the fence [I'm allowed to hike there whenever I please] and explore.

I found lots of empty webs, and quite a few occupied webs.

The spiders don't bother you if you bump into their web, they just scuttle off into the grasses or bush they built on.

Imagine that they remake or build a new web each day -- or night? How industrious is that?

I used to be so afraid of spiders until I met a 9 year old girl who wanted to become an entomologist. She and I would go around and look at spiders and any other insect we could find together. I started photographing them with her and of course, I found a new and exciting subject to 'shoot'.

This stunning beauty is in one of my wilder flower gardens. I won't go in and pull weeds or anything until she is done for the season. 

I'm going to go out early again tomorrow morning and each morning to try and get glimpses of these beautiful creatures. At least until they are done for the season. 

I find them to be so amazing and so oddly beautiful.

Happy August

 

It has started out very August-y. Hot Hot Hot. But the gnats have started to dissipate here and being out in the flower garden is more comfortable [in the shade]. 

I am bummed. I woke up yesterday morning and listened for our resident wren. She/he always sings and scolds me when I go out with Charlie. In fact several wrens generally serenade the yard each summer morning.

I was left wanting. 

Their voices have disappeared. Left in their place are crickets and an occasional Robin, Wood Thrush, and Woodpecker voice in the predawn. Another voice not heard is the Red Wing Black Bird. The birds are starting to migrate.

Hmmm. Not to be a bummer, but I read somewhere that August is also the month where we lose a significant amount of daylight. 😔 

I still feel like it should be ... more nice summer and not heading towards fall. But that is how nature works, right?

Time waits for no one?

However, August is the time for flower gardens to shine in their glory with annuals!

My Zinnias that were not doing well have finally hit their peak! So color me happy!
They aren't as plentiful or tall as they have been in years past, but I adore being able to cut bouquets of them and add color to my kitchen counter.

This side garden of flowers was all my leftover seeds from last year. I did not expect to have this!

The girls say good morning!

Here is a closer shot of the orange cosmos bunch. They are thick as thieves and I don't think any weeds even grew up in between them. So much for spacing them out a few inches. I just dumped the seeds on the ground and raked it, then stomped them into the dirt. 

I'll be gathering a lot of these seeds again this fall.

This makes me smile even though August races us towards Fall.

Some other stray cosmos got in the mix. My favorite colors of cosmos are the multicolored ones, but the orange ones sure are prolific with their fern like foliage and bright colors.

And then there was a huge surprise. A white Malva aka known as Prairie Mallow came up in the middle of the orange cosmos!

They are related in a way to Hollyhocks, but are more sturdy and readily reseed. I hope to see more of these white beauties next year. I'll have to collect their seeds even though they will do it themselves.

The humming birds are going crazy over the 4 O'clocks in the evening and through the morning. The flowers close up during the day and re-open with a sweet scent all evening.

I have hundreds of these plants on the west side of the house.

Every year now, I collect Nasturtium seeds and replant a few around the porch. Each August I am always surprised as to how they want to spread out and take over everywhere. 

I let them. Here they crowd out the stepping stones to the porch. The violets are volunteers from a hanging planter I had there last year. They actually are doing better as volunteers than they did in a hanging pot.

I'm going to let the plants do what they want and just carefully go around them.

I have one more spot that I planted with Zinnias and Cosmos. It is an area where the old veggie garden used to be. Next year I hope to add another small extension of carefree flowers. 

The morning glories have gone crazy and have covered the wagon wheel. I had to put out a couple of posts to give them more climbing area.

Have a good weekend and stay cool. 

Hot Hot

We've had a pretty decent summer so far. Cool mornings and nights even though we had a lot of rain and bugs.

Now? Yikes, I was not ready for a 79* dew point, with 79% humidity and 80* temps yesterday morning. Yuck. Yuck and double Yuck.

I did outdoor work and my errands early. I made cold Italian pasta  salad for supper and retreated to the indoors for most of the day.

I continued to mess around with my Lego bricks and lights to make that Space Challenge Scene that was on for last month. Even though I didn't come close to 'winning' I enjoyed the fun in making interesting scenes to celebrate Lego's Space Theme for the past month.

This really didn't work out as I imagined but I had a lot of fun building the Labratory. I created a space environment with an AI generator for the background.

I placed the works on top of a wooden block on my keboard...

and ended up with this....          👇

I am learning now to build and then set up a camera and see what view the camera can see and use that area for details. It is different building for fun and building a little 'set'.

Setting up the 'set', lighting, and characters is hard! It is so much easier to do a Lego shoot outdoors in my opinion.

Here I just took my Little Tourist Alien and set him on the porch with some rocks and one of my garden Gargoyles.

It was rather easy to deal with the lighting and scene.

Since I was avoiding the heat and humidity, I thought I'd build something fun and unique to use a new character with. It was to be Spacey and have Cool Lighting.

I began with a plan. I wanted a blue eerie lit background. That meant making a part of a wall with see through blue bricks. I put it on a white baseplate and used irregular Lego 'rock' bricks to make the back wall for a cave or alien planet texture.

[The brick texture didn't show up because of the lighting!]

So the idea was to have a space creature walking down the path of blue crystals with cool lights. I noted that the back wall didn't really show up and how was I going to include that in the photo?

As always, I never take the easiest route when trying this out. 

I first tried it with two little blue balloon lights and a white light. I laid the face mister on its side and turned it on to add some glow to the light.

It was sort of cool but it was hard to tell what was going on.

So I went with more color. Of course. When in doubt, make it harder.

I like this version just because of how the red lit up the bricks around the Glaciator Power Miner Minifig and set a menacing tone. Apparently this Power Miner was the supposed to have the power to turn things into ice and explode them. There was a game based on these characters and sets that saw popularity from 2009-2010.
I just saw this guy at a garage sale and picked him up for $1. 

He is also partially made out of transparent plastic.

After all of that what did I learn? I learned that I made something fun and cool. However, the picture doesn't tell any story at all. Nothing. It is just a cool lit up minifigure. I learned that indoor photography with added lights takes a lot of experimentation and adjustments.

I kept this build so I can try again to re-shoot it to tell some sort of visual story. I realize that I should have had a little bit of light coming from directly above the 'set'. That might make a difference.

I was frustrated and pleased with the experiment.

So early this morning I went out with my pal Glenda and created an easy story on the porch.

Glenda rarely needs any explanation for what she does. 

She just does her thing and I follow her around....

It promises to be another extremely hot and humid day.

PS~
Welcome August.

Wild Things

These are not my photos but photos from the Trail Cam I have set up on a trail in the woods.

As you may be able to tell, we all use the same path right here. It is the only way around an old oak that fell across the 'ridge road' as we call it. I had someone who said he'd clear it for me. Yeah, that didn't happen. More about that on another post perhaps....

So we walk around it.
I was surprised by the 'critters' I caught coming through here. 

The blur in the second shot is a Robin!
It is interesting too, to see the temperatures on these days. I don't know exactly how accurate the readings are though.

This looks like a young coyote or one that is a bit scrawny. Interesting to see it in the midmorning hours.

And a few minutes later....

Then I come through with the kids.

That evening a doe and her fawn pause for their photo to get taken.

I used to have the camera lower on the tree. It seemed that every critter had to put their nose on it to sniff it. I had a lot of smeary photos of globs last month. So many mule and fawn globs!

I think this is a good spot for the camera now.

And here comes a nice little buck that we've seen on the other camera. I think it is pretty cool to see their antlers growing.

I think this is the same fella.
My old camera only takes in Infrared. That camera is about 8 years old.
It still works and has a good position in the Buckthorn Forest on a very well used trail.

I have an appointment with the young Entomologists today again. 

My young charges want to go 'buggin'. 

Uffdah. This morning it was like walking in pea soup. The temperature and dew point are nearly the same with humidity at 90 something. My grandma would say that the air is Heavy.

We had an orange sunrise and fog laying across the meadows. The air movement is zero....

It is only Wednesday?

So.

This week has been an odd one for me.

We had our first time 'out' for an extended drive for a 2 minute lab test for the VA doctors. Secure Messaging for refilling scripts.

~Thank goodness for Secure Messaging. 

Afterwards we ordered 'fast' food through a drive up. The eating areas were closed everywhere in Baraboo, Wisconsin. So we ate in the car with it running and the A/C on. [We wouldn't have gone in even if they were open.]

Sympathy cards in the mail for my MIL. 

~My own family is a bit odd about death and dying. My mother and Grandfather never said 'passed'. People died. Period, they didn't Pass.

Passing was something you did on the road.

Grandpa used to say that he wasn't going to go to 'So and So's' Funeral because by golly...So and So wasn't coming to his.

He used to recite the Ashes to Ashes saying in a much different manner.

I grew up without proper funeral etiquette. My father abhorred funerals, he said it was barbaric to see the dead in a casket. 

Do I acknowledge the sympathy cards? What happens when people write a check? The funeral was pre paid. See, I am at a loss with death and its accoutrements.

[edit: any moneys will be donated to the nursing home for activity supplies...I emailed my stepdaughter to find out what to do!]

My knowledge is so lack that I didn't even know that the updating of the headstone would be taken care of. 

I guess it is time for me to do some studying.

I've jumped back into my Virtual CrossFit workouts. I skipped last week as I was so exhausted from sitting with MIL for days. I had no idea how much that daily effort would simply drain me. I am however glad that I did it. 

It feels good to be back into some sort of routine after feeling like I was in limbo for a week.

Heat/Muggy/Horrid Heat.

The heat and misty mornings are incredible to view and photograph of course.

I went out at 4:30 to watch the predawn from different areas of the ridge.

The heat index is around 100 each day and the yard is beginning to look like we should cut it for hay!

Rich wants to do it, however the conditions are not good for him to be out in the heat.

After my workout yesterday, I took a walk to cool off.

Sven was working on his particular skills as a weed wacker. I made a tiny collage of the things I saw on my walk.

Some of that is from my garden obviously and some of that is from alongside our long driveway.

I saved the books my MIL had in her boxes and thought it would be fun to read what she read.

Um. I'm not into Romance Novels, however during the hot afternoons I can pick a book up and stay cool inside during the hottest parts of the day while Rich naps.

I can say this. The books are easy reading.

The stories are rather predictable but what do I know?

It's only Wednesday!

Morning

I finally got out this morning and parked at my sunrise spot.

I have hesitated and not gone most mornings because ... well, Rich had his stroke early morning. Had I been gone at work or had I gone for an extended outing of sunrise photos, well...
the story would be different now.

I was happy I went as it seems today will be rainy. Well, that is what the weather folks say.

The gnats were horrid though.

I tried a long exposure combination and you should have seen my arms swatting at the gnats trying to get into my ears and into my brain...ewww...

I'm sure if anyone could have seen me they would have thought that I lost my itty bitty mind.

And maybe I have and maybe I haven't.

I rushed through what is normally about an hour of watching the sun come up and enjoying the views.

But I still had a beautiful quiet time.

And everything was fine when I got home.

It is going to be HOT and Muggy

Sunshine comes in from the Merry Meadow pre dawn and is followed by her sister, Sundance. 
The farrier arrives later today and sometimes it can be a pain to try and separate these girls from the rest of the gals.

However the red sisters came right to the gate together and I was able to put them in a nice shady pasture next to the Meadow.

They were happy but the other ladies and donkeys were slighty perturbed.

The Red Mollies tossed their noses up at them and went to grazing.
I didn't realize that things would go this way when I walked out before dawn to watch the sun rise over the Merry Meadow.
It was worth it in more than one way.

The girls seemed happy enough, so I left them to grazing. The farrier will be here this afternoon and they can enjoy the extra shady area until them.

Looks like a busy day in store for us, the contractors showed up and I've got to scurry around and move a few items.

Doors and trim come today. Also they will be trimming out the windows.