She's Still Here

Well, she is still here, hanging by a thread. It is still hot here so she has been busy. I thought you might like to see what my garden spider has been up to these last three weeks. She's just about given everything she has and senses the cold days approaching before her inevitable, final bow. What a spider!

Deep Thoughts For Your Morning Cafe

Maybe in order to understand mankind we have to look at that word itself. MANKIND. Basically, it 's made up of two separate words, "mank" and "ind." What do these words mean? It's a mystery and so is mankind.



Okay. If that didn't do it for ya, here is one more.

To me, it's a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, "hey, can you give me a hand," you can say, "sorry, got these sacks."

TARGET

Target has been at it again. Incredibly, they have enlisted many superstars in their different fields, to design products for them. Zac Posen recently designed a clothing line, Temple St. Clair, a very expensive jewelry designer has a jewelry collection out this month, and now, John Derrian has done a collection for them. Being the earth mother that I am, I had to have this dragonfly platter. And, the storage containers, well, I had to get some of those too. They are lined inside with the most beautiful lettering. There were many more designs; containers, dishes, mugs, frames... Very cool Target.

My Garden Spider

Every spring I look for argiope aurantia, commonly know as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider. If you don't like spiders, this variety is considered harmless to humans. With the elaborate web she weaves, I've come to enjoy watching these year after year. They start out each spring finding a spot where she will spend the rest of her days; tiny webs at first growing up to two feet across in late summer.
These Garden Spiders mate once a year, then lay their eggs at night and form a ball of silk around them. She guards her sack as long as she is able. As the fall nights cool, she becomes more frail and dies around the first hard frost. Her hatchlings, the size of a speck of dust, will exit the pod in the spring. The teenies then exude a strand of silk that gets caught by a breeze, and fly away...