Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more

I haven't bought yarn in a while, since my knitting has been seriously curtailed by sore fingers this year.  But when Craftsy had my favorite $11.99 sock yarn on sale for $3.99, I had to act.  I love jewel and earth tones.

I also bought some thicker yarn to knit hats.  I claim the blue!

Some fabric was an amazing 1/3 of the original price.  So even though I don't have projects in mind quite yet (ahem), I stocked up.  

Sommer by Sarah Jane, a 40-piece 10" x 10" layer cake set.

 Half yard Dreamfield bundle set by Lily & Loom (contains 20 half-yard pieces).

Free Spirit by Amy Butler, 5" charm pack (forty squares).

Lily & Loom Strawberry Fizz layer cake (forty 10" squares).

I love all of these charming and cheerful prints, although Dreamfield is my favorite!  I could easily make a large quilt with 20 half-yard pieces of fabric, but you might be wondering about the rest. Why bother with 40 five-inch or even ten-inch squares?  Well, it's just like a meal.  I've heard that if you're trying to save money, don't make meat your main course.  Build your meal around a vegetable or other side and have a little bit of meat as "an accent."  It's the same with quilting.  I can easily match solid-color fabrics to any of these prints and use the printed fabric to bulk out the quilt.  The patterns can be the accent and the overall effect will be just perfect!

We have finally, blissfully had a break from the oppressive heat and humidity.  Mornings are in the 70s now (!!!), at least for a while, and so we decided to take a hike.

I was surprised to see so many webworms!  They're really damaging to trees and spread quickly.

The black dots in the nest?  Caterpillar frass, or excrement.

This little guy will overwinter in tree cracks or in the leaf litter and emerge (in moth form) in early summer.  

 This is a yellow-striped oak worm.

He's another tree pest who will overwinter and emerge as a really attractive moth in early summer!

See this foamy spot on the branch?  It's yet another pest - the spittle bug. As they feed on the tree sap, they secrete "spittle." The spittle purpose is twofold:  it provides humidity, which helps the spittle bug grow, and offers protective covering from predators.

Despite the dry conditions, we saw lots of mushrooms.

And these amazingly complex funnel webs!  They're tornado-like, I think.

{Look away if you're spider-averse!}

We have funnel web spiders in Indiana, but I've never seen such elaborate webs!  Here he waits for his next meal.

I even love to see the insect carcasses caught in old webbing.  There's something octopus-like about this one.

On the home front, I've confirmed that there's definitely a new beaver in town!

They have the sweetest faces and I love to see them at work!

We've also got a heron pair.  I've got one thing on my mind:  heron BABIES!

I'll keep an eye out...and try to be patient!

Have a great week!

It's the...eye of the corgi, it's the thrill of the hike...

Any temperature over 90 degrees F is not conducive to quality hiking, in my opinion.  It's been dreadfully hot and dry here, but we had a reprieve this weekend.  85 degrees F!  Borga, too, has been giving us the side-eye, so we decided to go hiking.

I think we're going to the North Carolina mountains next weekend to hike, but this weekend we stayed close and explored some new trails in Clemson.  I haven't been outside too much this summer, so I *loved* getting to see a few insects.

Here's a mating pair.  Notice how the female is much larger than the male!

Another green lacewing larva, Trojan-horsing it under his load of debris.

Look!  Some clever leaf-cutting insect has incised part of this leaf, folded it over, and secured it with silk threads.  She laid her eggs within its sheltering cover.

Sunlight makes this leafhopper glow as it basks on a stem.

Some sort of caterpillar, making its way up a tree trunk...

My find of the day!  This is a furcula moth caterpillar (Furcula Borealis). 

He's in the split-tail caterpillar family, but what's amazing is how he blends in almost completely with the leaf he's on, which has similar brown splotches.

What a beauty!  Well, sort of.  ;)

He has warning spikes that come out of the tips of his split tail, very similar to the orange spikes that come out of a tiger swallowtail caterpillar's antennae.  He looks imposing, but does not sting or bite.  See his amazing camouflage?

Here's a tiny gold-dusted beetle...

Speaking of tiger swallowtails, I am *almost* positive that this is one of their chrysalises.

I saw the most amazing funnel web.  It went all the way to the ground and the tube had to be six inches long!

(Look away, arachnaphobes!)  The spider within, though, is quite small.

Love seeing the wild blackberries...

...and lots of moss.

At the end of the day, Borga was happy, and I was so glad to have gotten some fresh air and nice time out in nature.

At the home front, our "goz" are now indistinguishable from their parents, whom they stay with for about a year. 

We don't see them nearly as much.  Canadian geese fly at 10 weeks, so it's been fun to hear, and sometimes see, their noisy practice flights. 

The big news, though...we have a NEW BEAVER!!!!!!!

He is just as delightful and playful as any member of our previous beaver family, but I'm so afraid that he's going to get trapped and killed.  We might try to arrange for a preemptive humane capture and release in a safer location.  Meanwhile, though, we're going to enjoy every second of his company!

Have a great week! 

My Favorite Martian

"There's a huge spider in the carport," Todd mentioned last week. 

"Really?" I said.  I haven't been outside much, to let my bites heal, but yesterday I started thinking, I wonder if that big spider is still there?  Actually, I didn't need a spider sighting to know that they're everywhere here.  No matter how often we clean webs from our windows, they look like this in a day or two:

Our carport is absolutely wreathed in webs.

Todd's spider was dead (male funnel weavers often die after mating), but I didn't have to look far to find another one.

The story of this spider (Agelenidae Agelenopsis) made an impression on me.  I know that people are squeamish about spiders, and I often hesitate to blog about them.  But I was sitting at a traffic light this morning and mused, "That coiled wire above the light reminds me of that male funnel weaver's pedipalps..." and I knew I had to talk about this fascinating spider.  You may have to click on the photo to enlarge for detail, but see those "arms" with the funny shiny coils?  Those are exclusive to male funnel weavers.  Those "arms" (pedipalps) hold their sperm, and the tips are modified into fancy black coils (these are what are actually inserted into the female).  I read that these spiders are fast and have been clocked at 1.7 feet per second (on their webs).  Their webs aren't sticky and don't need to be, because the spider is fast enough to catch any prey that stumbles into their web. 

I spent an hour reading about funnel weaver spiders last night, and started thinking about my journey to 'spider acceptance'.  I've always photographed beautiful webs:

...but I've always been admittedly squeamish about the spider itself.  I had a similar feeling about praying mantises, with their staring, alien eyes.

But I forced myself to learn about them and get close to them...really close.  Now they're "my favorite martian".

I used the same method for my arachnophobia, and I've found some really incredible spiders.

(Again, you'll probably need to click on the photo for good detail!)

The crab spider, always hiding in flowers to catch insects that alight there:

The clever spiny-backed orb weaver, which checkers its web to warn off low-flying birds:

Argiope and her zig-zaggy web:

My favorite, the Daring Jumping Spider, with its big eyes, funny hopping, and beautifully patterned abdomen:

Don't forget the beautiful jade Venusta Orchard Spider:

There are many others, but I think I've made my point.  Far from avoiding spiders, now I'm even trying to include them in my craft work, like this embroidery project (a future pillowcase):

 

It's not always easy, but I hope you'll go out of your comfort zone with a new insect/spider that you may have, in the past, avoided.  Who knows what you'll learn?

Have a great week!