Dude! I'm busy here!

I just happened to spot this very tiny jumping spider on the rudbeckia...and then realized that he was stalking another tiny spiders of a different species.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's view) I interrupted the hunt and the little dude here went into a sulk.  He glared at me with four of his eyes (I have know idea where the rest of his eyes were focused) and we had a bit of a stalemate.  I must have snapped 30 shots - and exactly two were even remotely sharp.  I had to rotate this one around as he was hanging upside down from the flower petal and I just can't orient my vision that way.  This angle feels more interesting to me - more personal.

A word about spiders ... not that many years ago even this minuscule creature (about the size of the clicker end of a ball-point pen) would have made me shiver.  But the first time I saw one of these through a macro lens, things started to change.  I find their faces really ... cute.  I know, I know - it's a spider, it shouldn't be "cute".  But it is - I mean, c'mon, look at that fuzzy face with the four button eyes?  Cute, right?  RIGHT?

It is blistering hot and humid today so I have mostly stayed in.  I made a quick sortie to the local farm to pick some fresh basil and heirloom tomatoes - dinner tonight is going to be pesto with a salad of fresh sliced tomatoes.  I already made the pesto and the kitchen smells like basil - the smells of summer.  My friend, Peggy, is stopping over for the night on her way from Philadelphia to Corning - so we'll enjoy a leisurely dinner, lots of gabbing, lots of wine and probably a fair amount of  giggling.  I am lucky to have such great friends.

Salute!

Debbi

Garden notes:  The pink phlox is still blooming and some of the dark pink bee balm is having a late bloom.  The sawflies have, once again, decimated the mallow rose and I should probably just give up on them in the future.  Spots of orange milkweed continue to bloom around the garden/yard.  And the ironweed, after a two-year absence, is once again blooming!  Happy pollinators...