Posts Tagged ‘spider web’
Wet Mowing
Wetness abounds this morning. After a first round of mowing yesterday, I parked the rider, put the batteries on their chargers, and went in for some lunch. A peek at the weather radar revealed I had limited time to make much more progress on mowing. While the tractor batteries charged, I grabbed the push mower and hustled down to the labyrinth.
I was maybe 4/5s of the way through when the droplets started sprinkling down. I finished anyway, hoping that the electric mower wouldn’t be hypersensitive to working in the rain. The shower was of short duration but long enough to make it too wet to do any more mowing.
Cyndie put a rain cover on Mia because the last time it rained, the old mare shivered significantly when she got wet. This time, it wasn’t as cool or windy, but Cyndie chose a little extra caution, just in case.
I didn’t think it was necessary, but soon after, another round of precipitation arrived and soaked things even more, and my thinking changed. It’s a good thing Cyndie’s intuition is so keen.
As we emerged from the woods this morning on our rounds, it was hard to tell whether the moisture droplets on the horizon were steam rising up from the heat of the rising sun or fog settling down toward the ground.
Water droplets were clinging to new spider webs, accenting the mastery of the intricacies of the structures.
Just a couple of steps in the yard had our boots soaking wet. Hopefully, the declining angle of September sunshine won’t delay the drying of grass blades too long. I have plenty of mowing left to do and dwindling days to accomplish it all. We need to leave somewhere around zero-dark-thirty Tuesday morning to meet Mike and Barb for a ride to the airport to catch a flight to Boston. Today and tomorrow are all I’ve got left to finish another week’s worth of groundskeeping tasks.
It seems like travel adventures with the Wilkuses in September are becoming an annual event. Last year at this time, we were all headed to Iceland together. Much earlier this morning, I was dreaming we were already underway and driving to a destination that took the car around a corner too fast while Cyndie and Mike were somehow joint-driving in classic reality-defying dream logic.
I felt myself clinching in preparation for a crash as the car rounded a corner on only two wheels, with the rest of the car hanging in mid air over a dropoff. Thank goodness the gravity in dream-world didn’t pull us down.
It’s not like I have any lingering subconscious aversion to traveling or anything…
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Wet Web
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Early morning dew drops cling to a spider web on a gate in the southwest corner of the back pasture. We frequently emerge from the woods at this spot on morning walks with Asher. He almost always tries to choose the fork to the right on the trail that follows the fence line all the way to the road. Each time I remind him that we are on our way to the barn to feed the horses. The fork to the left follows the fence line around the back pasture and leads to the barn.
When we come around the corner where the barn becomes visible, I try to greet the horses in a normal voice (not shouting), just to let them know it’s us. I don’t want to startle them first thing in the day. It’s very rewarding to tend to them when they remain very mellow throughout our arrival and subsequent activity.
We had a busy day of appointments yesterday. I started with a follow-up visit to the Physical Therapist for my shoulder and leg issues. Cyndie had a dentist appointment (or so she thought; it’s today, actually), followed by a doctor’s visit for an infection. Cyndie pulled a leech off her toe over the weekend and it didn’t end well.
That meant I was the one to take Asher to the vet for his out-of-control itching problem. The big guy weighed in at 85.5 pounds. His temperature was normal. Anti-itch meds were prescribed. He also got shots for vaccines and a blood draw for analysis. We are also giving him over-the-counter Benadryl doses. He was pretty wiped out last night and appeared to sleep soundly for a change.
The vet wants us to bathe him once a week. That’s a battle we have chosen to avoid until now. Asher has not been cooperative in past attempts to get him wet. It’s time for us to develop a routine that works.
I suppose we could leave him out all night so dew droplets condense all over him.
Or, maybe not.
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Sunlit Visibility
That low angle sunlight of early morning or late afternoon makes for some of the best photo opportunities. It can also be helpful when washing a window or dusting surfaces. Normally invisible detail becomes extraordinarily highlighted to a surprising degree.
Think about all the floating particulate in the air that suddenly becomes visible when the beam of sunlight cuts past you at an almost horizontal pitch. A second before that, breathing was unconscious and easy. After the sun lights up the parts-per-million of little particles, the brain wants to overrule that inhalation reflex.
It’s interesting how much debris we usually get away with inhaling that can be seen when illuminated, yet the much smaller coronavirus COVID-19 has become the microscopic threat that forces us to wear masks.
About dusting, a friend offered up this quip:
“I dusted once. It came right back. Won’t fool me again.”
I can be embarrassingly fastidious about wiping the 1-inch exposed flat surface perimeters in front of me that gather dust, using one bare finger that subsequently gets brushed off on my pants. Beyond that level, I possess great abilities to feign blissful ignorance for long spans of time.
From my reclined vantage point during one of the sunny mornings the previous weekend, I looked up to discover the bright sunshine hitting the stones around our fireplace was revealing a noteworthy cobweb construction effort.
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My first reaction was to think how great it is that beyond those fleeting minutes of direct sunlight, it doesn’t look like there is anything but untarnished stone on that wall. Unfortunately, the second thought was that, if there are that many cobwebs on that little fraction that was lit up, how many of the other rocks must be similarly covered.
Then I noticed one of the crossbeam logs supporting the vaulted ceiling.
Visible in the solar high-beam was a strand for the makings of a giant spider web crossing the significant expanse of open air.
I think we should just cover all the furnishings below with white sheets and embrace the look of a vacant dwelling.
Either that or make sure we never entertain company on sunny days.
We dusted once. It came right back.
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Snow Arrived
As expected, snow showers blew in yesterday. Windy, wet, sticky snow battered the ranch for most of the day. For the most part, we were prepared. The rain gauge wasn’t doing us much good anymore, so I brought that in, after the fact. There are plenty of leaves on the grass that I would have preferred to have removed in advance, but that’s a trivial concern.
It was certainly beautiful to look at. Conditions varied from blowing tiny flaked drizzle to snow-globe gorgeous throughout the afternoon.
After Cyndie let the horses out of the barn, they stayed hunkered down under the overhang, except for individual brief sorties down to the waterer and back. When I was mucking out their stalls in the middle of the day, I would take breaks and lean on the half-door to watch them. I caught Legacy standing in a spot where his head was out from beneath the protection of the overhang. It looked like he was trying to wash his head and mane.
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Before heading back into the house, I walked the driveway and took a bunch of pictures as the flakes flew. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that one of the wet globs stuck to the camera lens, creating a blur in the middle of most of the shots.
The snow added a nice accent to our Halloween decoration near the front door of the house. Some people put up fake spider webs to make things look spooky. We have the real thing.
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Didn’t Work
As Delilah and I were walking through the woods on Sunday morning after the overnight accumulation of perfectly powdery snow, we came upon a loose strand of spider web blowing in the breeze, still covered with a collection of flakes. I suppose it might have been the weight of the snow that pulled the line from the web in the first place.
I hastily tried to capture a shot of it with my camera, but before I could successfully set the macro and frame the snowy strand, it broke away and fell to the ground.
It became another image for the batch of those that didn’t work.
Last night as I took Delilah out for her final evening stroll, I was surrounded by incredible beauty, all of which would land in my batch of “didn’t work” images if I tried to capture the scenes with my pocket camera.
The December super moon was illuminating the freshly fallen snow and giving off a priceless glow. How amazing the difference between this experience and the darkest moonless nights of summer around here. There was no need for a flashlight last night.
The sky wasn’t entirely clear, and some high wisps of cloud occasionally reflected a circle of light around the giant ball of cheese. It was simply spectacular. The kind of thing you want to immediately share with the world. You’ll have to take my word for it. I didn’t get any pictures.
It was a “you had to be there” performance.
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Relative Something 