Kitty Sandwich

October 12, 2012November 3, 2012 Timothy PriceLeave a comment

The kitties really know how to take advantage of Fall Break, laying around on the chaise lounge all sandwiched together — or more like Diné sandwiched between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The zipper spider is hanging in, but I don’t know if the cold slowed her down on her overnight web repairs, or that the wind already ripped holes in it before I got out to check on her this morning. Stretch was laying on the fleece blanket on the edge of the couch when I went out to check on the zipper spider, giving me a pitiful “please don’t waterboard me” look. We waterboaded him, as usual, and while it’s five to seven minutes of torture for him, he feels so much better the rest of the day. Laurie reads the adventures of Tin Tin out loud to us in French to help us all endure giving Stretch his daily infusions of fluid. I finally ordered the complete set of Tin Tin books, so we won’t run out of adventures to read for quite a while.

Pass the Hat

October 7, 2012November 3, 2012 Timothy Price2 Comments

October is the birthday month for our family. We celebrated Laurie’s and her mom’s birthdays tonight, out on the the deck. Even though I had the outdoor heater running, it still got cold enough to pull out the jackets, fleece blankets and the hats. The nights have been cool enough for the vines to turn red and the cottonwoods to turn yellow. The long photo is of a volunteer cottonwood that came in with the ditch water, which is only about 8 years old. The fifth photo gives you one of our views of the layers of cottonwoods that we see from the house. A bee flew into the Zipper Spider’s web and the spider pounced on it and wrapped it in silk in seconds. The last two photos show the Zipper with her bee right after she wrapped in up and her in action fixing her web after the capturing the bee. She let it dangle on a strand of silk while she worked on her web, and then ate it for breakfast.

All Eyes Are On You

October 2, 2012November 3, 2012 Timothy Price1 Comment

A little jumping spider was sitting on a blanket between me and Guildenstern on the couch. It didn’t seem to mind me shining my flashlight in its eyes to get enough light to get really close shots with my macro lens. It was also nice enough to hold very still for me. The depth of field is almost nil, but I got a clear shot of its eyes and pedipalps. Jumping spiders look very black to the naked eye, but as you can see they are quite colorful up lose and personal. It also has eyelashes, which you might not expect to see on a spider.

More Fall Colors

October 1, 2012November 3, 2012 Timothy Price2 Comments

Fall colors are in — even the neighbor’s horse was sporting fall colors backlit by the low afternoon sun. Since I don’t have the time or energy to climb the face of the Sandias to get a closer look at the aspens putting on their yellow, I used my 600 mm lens to get a a little closer view of them by stitching seven vertical images together. Stretch has improved so much over the past couple of weeks, that we gave him a day off from waterboarding today. He was out contemplating French and “Intelligent Life” this afternoon — a jumping spider was hanging out with him. The last photo is a panorama of the Sandias using a 100 mm lens (2 vertical photos stitched together).

Spider & Roses

September 26, 2011April 8, 2016 Timothy Price1 Comment

We had light frost this morning. I noticed it was 36º F on the deck just before sunrise, then coming back from lifting the gate on the ditch, I noticed light frost on the morning glories laying close to the ground.

I went out at 3:30 this morning and put down the gate on the ditch to irrigate. A spider had built another nice web off the post and wheel and the spider was hanging out in the middle of the web. I destroyed it again putting the gate down, and it turned out to be all for nothing as the water never built up enough to irrigate.

As I was going back into the house, I noticed the zipper spider was rebuilding it’s web, so I got some photos of it as it moved up and down the threads spinning a new web.

Ro and I rode out to San Felipe Pueblo and back this morning — 50 mile round-trip form our driveway. Everything was really beautiful, and I saw so many photos that I decided I’m going to get a mounting system that will allow me to strap two cameras securely on my chest and side and start riding with my cameras. That way I can get exercise and photos in the process.