Good Housekeeping "Seal of Dis-Approval"...

Earlier in the summer I noticed that the spiders like to build nests in the opening of the deck rail.  I guess the design affords them great opportunity to catch food with all of it's rectangular openings.  There is a bit of a view at the place, and so the quandary was to design a deck rail that would meet building code, go with the style of the house, and yet not block the view or "stop your eye".

Wandering around the local farm store one day on an unrelated quest solved the problem... there in the storage yard with all the cool tractor implements, watering troughs, and things of the like was a heavy galvanized wire horse fence material.  Cut to size, dip in a bath of black Rustolem in a quickly made vat of two by fours and visqueen, and the deck rail panels are hardly noticeable to the eye, unless those eyes are attached to a spider.

The same "eye stop" thing is true of the spiders constructions really.  You can hardly notice them under normal circumstances.  This summer I tried to photograph some of them, but my self-imposed rule for this blog of using only a pocket camera and not the digital SLR meant that I didn't get a good picture.  I took out a plant sprayer with some water in it, and I was able to capture some of the design by misting the web, but I was not satisfied with the pictures, so I didn't publish them.

Well once again I am reminded of how useful a tool procrastination can be if you learn to harness it.  Maybe I'll get to that.  At any rate, nature decided that I should record the wonder of the web, so it piled on a little help the other morning to highlight the various designs. I call this one waterfall and it was still hard to photograph.

It was hard to photograph until my handy photographic assistant came and used a passive reflector (her body) to backlight the scene.

Once properly lit, we could get a nice head on shot:

Webs are everywhere.  Click on the picture to get the bigger version and look at the one in the center, right as the deck rail turns.  Quite a design.

By this point, the photographic assistant and her sister had better things to do involving the search for things to catch (there is always something to catch on farm ground) so I was on my own;

Well, my mind wasn't quite in the gutter on this shot, but it was close:

On a lighter note

I think it is time for me to play tutor for the college kid... he has some study questions he wants to drill on for his final.  That will help me keep the cobwebs out of my mind. 

It doesn't get old...

Light, dark, repeat.  It doesn't get old.  I love being up early and watching the day start outside the window.  I never thought of myself as a morning person, but from the time I learned to read, I was the second one in the house with the newspaper, right after dad finished with it.  Dad is the definition of an early riser.

What I like is the quiet time as the day winds up its' first pitch.  Now my newspaper is made of emissive photons blasting my retinas from things named of science fiction.  Liquid crystals, and plasma inside a box to inform and entertain?  Doesn't that big bright thing in the sky (that appears over the Pacific Northwest ever so often) run on plasma or something?  Regardless of the medium, watching the world wake up and catching up on events is still a great way to start my day.

Back in my school days, the next part of the day was meeting up with your friends and classmates before school started for a few moments of socializing before the school machinery starting operating to try to destroy your will to live. :-)  I am so glad I went on to college to discover the joy of learning.

Today, I noticed I still start my day the same way.  I take in the morning, read the news, and do a little socializing with folks that are inclined to do so via the social media de jour.  Then it is on to life's possibilities.

The day surprised us with freezing temperatures and a sea of fog. 

This time, the sea sprouted an island

...and Captain Nemo in the Nautilus

Unfazed by the cold, the trusty garden shovel and I decided to crawl to the end of the place to dispose of some big rocks we had found.  There is lots of rocks down here, so burying a few more won't go noticed.

Even here, the garden shovel liked the view, electric blue skies on a cold day, quite a juxtaposition to the foggy mayhem below us.

The day gave us a pretty view of Mt Hood, a favorite of my sister, so I had to take this for her to enjoy.

Then it was back to work!

Chillin' Out

Looking at the hood of the car this morning it looks as if a single giant hand closed it in the early hours.  Of course we all know how silly a thought that is, there are no giant alien hands here closing hoods.  It was probably the foot of a pterodactyl that lit on the black car in the dark.

Some remnants of summer weather remain, the lad's flip flop left next to the hammock frame.  Let's try not to drift into the territory of 'why' it is there but rather focus on the beauty of nature and the story that is told by a ice speckled flip flop.  Still stuck on why?  Let me misdirect you with the Smashing Pumpkins' Here is No Why.

Infinity style shot down the frozen deck rail captures the now empty hammock frame and the deck that will be used mostly by critters for a while.  Maybe I will start a new cold weather tradition with the brataci whre we go dress up warmly and have a big cup of coffee out there on cold clear starlit nights.

Another remminent of summer, or is it?  The garden shovel as we call it has a full agenda today.  It looks so peaceful resting there but it knows somwthing is up since I started checking the oil and rattling the grease gun at it.  The coffee is ready, so I hope the shovel is too.  Time do do some more gardening.  Today's project is the planted areas on either side of the driveway, just short of a quarter mile worth digging both sides.