Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 24, 2014 by Henry
Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

I’ve posted photographs of the orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) a few times before. This one was taken just outside our front door, but her web, fortunately, is not stretched across the walk. I noticed the web two days ago but was not home when there was enough light for a photo. Actually, that was true today, as well, but I took this with flash.

As spiders go, the orchard orbweaver is quite colorful and, to my way of thinking, beautiful. I love the green color and they have a great pattern on their abdomen, although it doesn’t really show up in this photograph. The fact that they eat all manner of small insects also helps endear them to me. And this is one spider that I see quite a lot but have never seen indoors.

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And Another Sunset

Photograph taken on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 by Henry
355 Sunset

355 Sunset

Yes, another sunset. This time I’m sitting at the light at MD 355 watching the traffic go by and enjoying the sunset colors. In this picture, I’m actually looking almost due north, well away from the setting sun, so you can see that the amount of color in the sky is impressive. It was a beautiful sunset, lighting up the entire sky. I even took a picture or two looking to the west in my rear-view mirror, although those are not particularly good, photographically.

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Sunset

Photograph taken on Monday, September 22, 2014 by Henry
Sunset

Sunset

It’s shaping up to be a very busy week (and since I’m writing this after the fact, I can tell you that it was). I was fortunate to be able to head home before it was completely dark today. I took this from the road, while waiting at a light to turn green. After the last sunset picture I posted, I’m glad to be able to post a proper sunset again, with the bright colors that we all love in a sunset. This is a great time of year for them, so keep your camera (or these days, your phone) ready.

Correction: This was not taken on the way home, that was tomorrow’s picture. We were on our way out to dinner with Cathy’s mom for her birthday and stopped on Perry Parkway to take this picture.

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Elliot

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 21, 2014 by Henry
Elliot

Elliot

We were sitting behind Elliot and his brother and sister this morning in church. I think this picture speaks for itself, so I don’t have much to add except to say what a cute boy he is. I showed him the picture and got a bit smile, but of course, I couldn’t take a picture of him while I was showing him this one.

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Enjoying The Tire Swing

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 20, 2014 by Henry
Anna On The Tire Swing

Anna On The Tire Swing

I had a good night’s sleep even while sleeping on the ground. I often don’t sleep well the first night anywhere other than my own bed, even on a reasonably comfortable hotel bed. That means one night camping trips are generally a write off in the sleeping department. But I woke refreshed and enjoyed the cool morning. A few of the kids were up early fishing and I cleaned a cooked a reasonable sized bass along with the sausages and eggs. It was a relaxing day, variously spent fishing, watching the fire, eating, and enjoying the tire swing. We raised it a bit by looping the rope over the branch, because any but the smallest riders made it hit the ground.

Here is Anna, having a swing.

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Camp Fire

Photograph taken on Friday, September 19, 2014 by Henry
Nick, Katherine, Fiona, Anna, Grace, and Hannah

Nick, Katherine, Fiona, Anna, Grace, and Hannah

After work I headed up to Pennsylvania for another evening with a camp fire. This picture is of some of my fellow campers, cooking marshmallows, enjoying the fire, and each others’ company. It was a beautiful, cool evening with a warm fire. We really could not have asked for more. It’s been so busy at work that I was really looking forward to this time away and I must say that I was able to disconnect and rest, both physically and mentally for about 24 hours.

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Trachelas tranquillus (Broad-Faced Sac Spider)

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 18, 2014 by Henry
Trachelas tranquillus (Broad-Faced Sac Spider)

Trachelas tranquillus (Broad-Faced Sac Spider)

It’s time for another spider. This is a bit of a creepy looking spider, too. It’s about the right size and build for a brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) but I’m happy to report that it is meerly a broad-faced sac spider (Trachelas tranquillus). This is a fairly common spider along the central east coast and as far west as Kansas and Minnesota. While most spiders are venomous, the bite of this spider will cause pain similar to a bee or wasp sting. They only bite when provoked, however, so live and let live.

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Dusky Pink

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 by Henry
Clouds at Dusk

Clouds at Dusk

As sunset pictures go, I guess this is a bit weak. We expect sunset pictures to be bright and bold. This isn’t. It’s dusky and muted. That’s the sort of day it was, and that’s the sort of picture I got. Not a terrible picture, I suppose, but it isn’t going to catch and hold your attention.

Anyway, this is September 17, 2014. Good evening.

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There’s a Wrench In The Works

Photograph taken on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 by Henry
Wrenches

Wrenches

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wrench like me? No, that’s not right. Good king wrench’s lass look out, on the Feast of Stephen? No, that’s not it, either. All right, I’ll stop with the feeble puns. I’ve been working on getting my basement organized and one major task is organizing my tools. Since we moved, they have been distributed between a few different cardboard boxes, two tool boxes, and a few wire drawers in an unfortunately flimsy frame. Anyway, I’m going through everything and putting all the tools in one area and will then sort them. This is the wrench box, obviously.

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Broccoli

Photograph taken on Monday, September 15, 2014 by Henry
Broccoli

Broccoli

Do you like broccoli? I do. It’s one of my favorite vegetables, in fact. I prefer it to not be overcooked but can take it pretty much however. I don’t think it’s nearly as good when it’s been frozen, probably because that means you have to cook it longer to be sure you don’t have any cold spots. My preferred seasoning is a splash of vinegar and a little salt. Actually the one thing I don’t like much about broccoli is the spelling. I have a hard time remembering if it’s two Cs or two Ls.

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Phidippus audax (Bold Jumper)

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 14, 2014 by Henry
Phidippus audax (Bold Jumper)

Phidippus audax (Bold Jumper)

I was out photographing things in the yard early this afternoon. There were some very small flies on buddleia leaves and I was trying to get pictures of them. Then I noticed this fellow, down on a black-eyed Susan flower. It was a bit dark and it’s a dark spider on a dark background, but still not too bad. It is a bold jumper (Phidippus audax), one of the many jumping spiders, family Salticidae.

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Sunset

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 13, 2014 by Henry
Sunset

Sunset

I was just about caught up, posting the last few pictures the day they were taken or early the following day. Then it got very busy at work and I had a very hard time keeping up with everything, so this slipped. As I write this on September 26, I have finally gotten around to taking pictures off my camera from September 13 through 23. I’ll try to get caught up again. Anyway, there was a pretty sunset this evening as I was cooking dinner and I went out back for a few pictures. Most of the color was seen behind the trees but there were a few bright areas of open sky.

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Clouds

Photograph taken on Friday, September 12, 2014 by Henry
Clouds

Clouds

It got quite warm yesterday, topping 90°F, but today was cooler and the sky was a glorious blue with fabulous layers of light clouds scattered across it. It was a long day for me, having a dentist appointment and then part of a work day, followed by a round trip to Richmond, returning by way of Baltimore, which isn’t really on the way. Because of all that I didn’t take many pictures but this is one of a few I took from my car while waiting at a traffic light.

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Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower)

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 11, 2014 by Henry
Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower)

Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower)

Cathy and I thought we’d go for a walk today, around lunch time. It was unexpectedly hot, so we didn’t go as far as we had thought we might, but we were out a little while. We walked around the edge of the woods near the various buildings of our office campus. In addition to blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), we saw this cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), one of the showier native wildflowers of our area.

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Alobates pensylvanica (False Mealworm Beetle)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 by Henry
Alobates pensylvanica (False Mealworm Beetle)

Alobates pensylvanica (False Mealworm Beetle)

I went out to get some coffee this morning and when I came back I found this fairly large beetle on the floor of my office. I took a few pictures of it on the floor before moving it up to the spider plant on my window ledge, where I took some more photos.

I like beetles. The beetles are the largest order in the animal kingdom, with more than 350,000 described species worldwide, representing about 40% of known insects (per http://bugguide.net/node/view/60).

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Hens and Chicks

Photograph taken on Tuesday, September 09, 2014 by Henry
Hens and Chicks

Hens and Chicks

This morning I took a few pictures of a goldfinch on the black-eyed Susans outside our kitchen. Technically, that satisfied my goal of taking at least one picture today. They were not very good, though, so late this evening I took some of some plants, cacti and succulents, that Dorothy has potted up for herself. These are commonly known as hens and chicks and are in the genus Sempervivum which is in turn in the Crassulaceae family, known as houseleeks

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Bountiful Harvest

Photograph taken on Monday, September 08, 2014 by Henry
Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Beans, and Basil

Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Beans, and Basil

Cathy and I stopped at Albert and Brady’s after work yesterday. It was nice to visit and we ended up loaded with a bountiful harvest, as evidenced by this photograph. Albert and Brady have a vegetable garden and it’s gotten a little ahead of them. As you can see, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and basil all in profusion. We also got a lot of cherry tomatoes, which are really delicious. I made a big batch of tomato sauce this evening with almost nothing that wasn’t direct from the garden, and by “direct” I mean, picked today. Thanks, guys!

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Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 07, 2014 by Henry
Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver)

I know that not everyone is particularly fond of spiders, so I apologize if this creeps you out. I actually don’t mind them in their place. Mind you, when walking through the woods, my face is decidedly not their place. But outdoors, eating other insects, they are good friends. They can also be quite beautiful and surprisingly colorful, to say nothing of the fabulous webs they often spin.

This is an orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta, with venusta being the Latin for beautiful), and they are quite common in our area (and I’ve never actually seen on indoors, which is just as well). This one is only about 8 inches off the ground, which made getting down under it for a photograph a bit of a challenge, but I think it’s turned out pretty well.

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WCA Picnic

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 06, 2014 by Henry
Sierra, Lauren, Abigail, Ayrianna, Sara, Eden, and Amy

Sierra, Lauren, Abigail, Ayrianna, Sara, Eden, and Amy

Even though Dorothy has graduated, we still feel a strong connection to WCA. We have a lot of friends there and still know quite a few students. This afternoon (in the about 100°F heat) WCA had its annual family picnic. We weren’t exactly invited but we brought a side dish and I took pictures, which will be available to the yearbook team, so I think it’s alright. Anyway, we had a nice time visiting with friends. Sometimes getting students to pose for pictures is easy, sometimes, not so much. This group had to be cajoled but in the end, they posed very nicely. I had my back to the building and couldn’t get far enough away to get them all in one shot, so this is actually two pictures, stitched together. Turned out quite well, I think.

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Reflected Lights

Photograph taken on Friday, September 05, 2014 by Henry
Reflected Lights

Reflected Lights

It’s been very hot this week, the hottest we’ve had all summer, in fact, and tomorrow is supposed to be the worst yet. Cathy and I talked about taking a walk somewhere this evening but we didn’t feel up to much. We decided to go to the Rio for dinner (Nando’s) and then walk around the pond. There was live music playing too loudly (and not terribly well, if truth be told), and it was still pretty warm but it was nice to see all the people enjoying themselves. This is looking back towards the restaurants from across the pond.

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