A sense of order

Marsha’s Wednesday Quotes

I am not sure where I am going with this so hang on

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order
John Burroughs

Processional Caterpillars have their own sense of order

Until a mischief maker comes along

Seeing the V shaped order of birds heading off to parts unknown

“The proper order of things is often a mystery to me.”
– Cheshire Cat – Lewis Carroll

Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.
– Jose Saramago

Words of Wisdom – Y23 #2

Paulas Words of Wisdom

Poetry is a fresh morning spider-web
telling a story
of moonlit hours
of weaving and waiting
during a night.

Carl Sandburg

Admission: the way the quote is written is what I did to it. It was just one long sentence plus it started with the word Poetry
Sorry Carl

Random shadows and reflections

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #235: Shadows and Reflections in Monochrome

Some of these photos you may have seen before but they were in colour. A few favourite shadow photos plus some new ones

The Frangipanni tree
the fence post
a magical cast
wonders for free

Looking ahead
seeing behind
travelling at speed
being lead

Look but seeing
thinking
puzzling
about being

Now you see
come sit
almost lunchtime
you and me

A Wagtail there
crumbs perhaps
or splash
look elsewhere

See within
reflect without
inside counts
easy win

Looking deep
no escape
spirals of reality
just sleep

Contentment lies
balance again
light and dark
truth and lies

Moored again
await adventure
reflecting
loss and pain

Put things back
together
repair
no black

Little steps
some are up
some are down
finding depths

Finding peace
and harmony
relax
thoughts cease

There’s magic
look
wonder of nature
just magic

I am sorry that this took so long for you to get through. It started and for once I let myself get carried away.
Originally there photo of the reeds was the last one then words needed photos and photos needed words. Thanks for getting this far 🤗

The unco spider

This is a story of the most unusual event that I saw late in the afternoon this week.

I was wandering about with my camera as I watered the plants, just in case something interesting happens to appear in the garden, and had just finished watering the garden after a particularly warm day. Near the tap, I took a series of very bad photos due to the almost lack of sunlight and in the shade of the verandah.

On the verandah between a hanging pot of flowering Nodding Violets and a verandah post I saw this weird looking spider navigating its way along a series of almost invisible strands of web.

The spider didn’t look like it was in control of its own around 20mm long body and legs. It seemed to be trying to get to that white dot just above the spider in the following photo, after travelling from the shelter of the hanging flower pot with the most uncoordinated fashion with legs that went anywhere they wanted.

I had to discover what this spider was and found out that it is a Whip Spider.


“Whip Spiders specialise in feeding on wandering spiders, usually juveniles. The spider sits at the top of a few long silk threads that run downs below it among foliage.”

This description made Whip Spiders seem way more agile than my spider!

Almost there just a bit of “upside down and how did the hell did the “packet” end up underneath” bit of confusion was part of the entertainment as it literally bounced it’s way along the strands of web.

“When a wandering spider walks up one of these handy silk `bridges’ it gets a nasty surprise. The waiting Whip Spider uses toothed bristles on the end segment of the last leg to comb out swathes of entangling sticky silk from its spinnerets.”

“These rapidly entangle the struggling victim so that it cannot escape.”

The final goal was reached and the Whip Spider checked to see if any of the last meal was still available

I was just about to stop watching and taking photos when the Whip Spider started to fold its legs along side its body. I thought I would get that last photo in case that would help me ID the spider.

The best bit was that in that last photo, the spider had finished with the lovingly wrapped meal and just tossed it away. You can just make out the motion of the packet as it plummets to the ground.

*Information in italics from the Australian Museum
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/whip-spider/

Classification

Species colubrinus
Genus Ariamnes
Family Theridiidae
Super Family Araneoidea
Order Araneae
Class Arachnida
Phylum Arthropoda
Kingdom Animalia

Now and before

Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge: Close Up or Macro

I found a small spider having breakfast this morning

I’ve sorting photos I am still in the mid 2020’s. Can only do a few days at a time. Some of the date folders, (all my photos when I download go in to a misc folder), have a few photos and some days of discovery have over one hundred photos.

Australian Green Tree Frogs are the happiest looking frogs. This photo is from 28 Sept 2020