October 12,  2025

It's officially fall, and it's getting chilly in the mornings.  The one remaining  Fish is still taking his/her evening meal- not clear when  that will end.  In all other autumns, I've been able to keep the pump off and just leave a small heater on top of the water to keep an air hole open all winter.  We'll see what we're able to continue as winter comes on!  Meanwhile, here is the one fish left over from the nasty storm we had a few weeks ago.   He/she still has a litttle supper at bedtime.  You can tell he was ready for that evening feed.   

I have never gotten so many letters telling me that what I was calling fall Crocus last week were actually Colchicums, which are crocus-like flowers that bloom in the Fall.  Sorry!   Mea culpa!  I really had forgotten about Colchicums.   Anyway, here are a few of the COLCHICUMS blooming this fall.  Next, a Latin scholar will be telling me the plural of Colchicum is Colchica.   I don't know what is causing the multiplicity of petals in picture 3.  Anyone?

I'm going to start right off with the most-requested category of creature that I get each week. There are people in the Southern part of Africa who always cry out, but where are my Spiders?  Here is a picture that should alert you that there are Spiders near or to come- the eggs!  These egg masses can contain MANY eggs.  So if you spot one of these structures, make a note of it, and keep coming back to see if it has hatched yet.  You may have seen these pictures fairly recently in this blog, but please understand how very much these viewers want to see their favorites.

Spiders can come in a variety of sizes and shape. First here is one called a Stretch Spider.   The second is a tiny Crab Spider, due to its fairly close approximation to the shape of a Crab.  Next is one you saw fairly recently - it's called a Butterfly Spider because of the stylized butterfly shape on its back.  

Here (pictures 1 and 2) is one of my very favorite Spiders - the Common Pirate Spider.  The two big white "pictures" look like downward-facing eyes.  It is very hard to mis-identify.  Seen front-on (as in picture 2) it seems to be wearing a picture of its prey.  The third pattern belongs to the  Eastern Triangular Cobweaver, Euryopis funebris.

You probably think a Spider is always a predator, but it can also be prey, as in this picture of a Wasp (here in black) which has grabbed the browner Spider.  The Wasp is probably going to take the Spider home to use as food for its babies.

The Goldenrod came in with a bang.  My nose is still drippy, no matter how forcefully doctors say Goldenrod isn't an allergen!!  But now the golden stuff is wearing off.  Here is a picture of a bunch of Ants looking for some kind of foodstuff in it.  Then you see a Goldenrod Soldier Beetle on a spray of Gold.  Third is a Wasp,  Cerceris insolita, foraging for nectar in the Golden stuff.

If you've been outside in the past few days, you already know that the Goldenrod is fading.  Soon it will be gone and Autumn will be into that period in which the other colors will be subsiding too.  Chaim's Milkweed pods are exploding with seeds. 

So folks, it's almost noon.  Time to post this blog and get outdoors to encourage Nature and her friends to keep going in peace, and get ready for the winter that will surely be coming soon.  Love, Martha