After another long break because we've been playing too much this summer: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2023/10/summer-memories.html

Some mid-October flowers for y'all's viewing pleasure:











For anyone who likes "hoary ancient forest" type imagery, here's a moss-covered dogwood:





Here's a Joro spiderweb I had to take down.  It was in my way, so it had to go.  The spider escaped to safety, so maybe she'll rebuild elsewhere.

You can see a male Joro a few inches above the female.  The males have been lurking in the webs since early September.  They're small, drab, and unremarkable, so I haven't mentioned them yet.  This is the first male Joro pic I've posted.  From what I've been able to observe so far, the female sits in the center of the orb part of the web while the males hang around on the outer "cage" part of the web. 

Also, you can see a tangled mass of silk just above the female.  A few days ago, I speculated that this sort of thing might be a stabilimentum, but then I changed my mind and decided it was just clutter.  Well, I've changed my mind again.  I'm seeing similar silk masses in several other webs, all just above the center of the orb.  Too many to be coincidental.  It's not clutter; whatever it is, it's there on purpose.

Really striking photos! Love the yellow silk.

Picked and ate a few more creeping cucumber berries.

Make an interesting addition to a salad.

Never heard of creeping cucumber. Do you use it in a salad?

Some people do, according to the internet.  I've never tried it before this week.