tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post2149330642693321193..comments2017-08-04T03:00:15.562-05:00Comments on The Little House in the Not-So-Big Woods: Season's changeJoy K.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06200194467024962551noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-50128961987065742582010-11-05T15:35:31.756-05:002010-11-05T15:35:31.756-05:00Joy, your description of the sweet, if (shall we s...Joy, your description of the sweet, if (shall we say) subtle relief of a North Texas autumn makes me miss Dallas. Still, autumn here in NYC is like a Dallas winter - and I'm loving it. <br /><br />Beautiful spider pictures.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-12009279594952636632010-10-18T13:40:44.088-05:002010-10-18T13:40:44.088-05:00It seems a shame that we lose them just as they ge...It seems a shame that we lose them just as they get large enough to be interesting to us. I get quite attached to the large spiders who build webs around the yard, especially the ones close to the house.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-60485489083319884492010-10-17T13:18:49.016-05:002010-10-17T13:18:49.016-05:00I looked up the orb spiders and asked the district...I looked up the orb spiders and asked the district entomologist. Apparently, the mothers fix the egg sacks, then die after they have laid all the eggs. The young hatch in the fall, but overwinter in the egg sack for warmth. In the spring, they emerge and start to grow. It is late summer before they are the large, commanding spiders with their pretty webs we notice. By then, they are almost at the end of their lives.<br /><br />I am a native Texan, and a spring person. God allowed man to invent air conditioning for a reason, and I prefer long, sunny days to short, cloudy nights.Stephanie Suesan Smith, Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06258700735299993683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-85010180750864153552010-10-16T12:05:08.449-05:002010-10-16T12:05:08.449-05:00@Grizz, I get more birds here in the winter than t...@Grizz, I get more birds here in the winter than the warmer months, and with the leaves gone, it's much easier to see them.<br /><br />I like the "winding down" feeling that comes with fall. Winter is wonderful: cold, grey, damp, drizzly. It's all good. <br /><br />I've come to appreciate spring for itself, and not just a harbinger of the summer that's soon to follow. I always view it with a little trepidation, though.Joy K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06200194467024962551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-34627634602810506782010-10-16T11:59:26.385-05:002010-10-16T11:59:26.385-05:00I guess that makes us Ohioans "tweeners"...I guess that makes us Ohioans "tweeners" as we not really located in the true north or sultry south, but somewhere in-between. Kinda like belly buttons. Summers can get hot here—hundred-degree days; winters can freeze your nether regions with twenty-plus below zero. Still, it isn't Florida or Minnesota.<br /><br />Personally, I guess I like spring slightly more than autumn (we do get all the patchwork bright colors, usually) because I like all the new growth, the notion of life resurrected, the wildflowers and returning birds and the thousand shades of green. (Yup, I'm Irish.) Plus I'm a trout fisherman and springtime is trout time. But fall is truly lovely and the weather is better. I also like winter—snow, ice, howling winds, hunkering by the fireside. What I don't much like is summer—not the heat and the sweating and way it makes me want to spend every day on a hammock in the shade. I'm good for about the first month, after that I grumble and whine and offer up the occasional prayer for a three-day blast of arctic air. I'm decidedly more moose than manatee.<br /><br />I've also seen a few dead Argiopes, though none this year. Don't know if you saw it or not but I put up a shot of an Argiope with a grasshopper a few posts back. I'm not a big spider fan, but they're quite striking in coloration.Grizz…………https://www.blogger.com/profile/04828454689578685330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-12286575007406454872010-10-16T11:40:40.011-05:002010-10-16T11:40:40.011-05:00I wonder if it's been a great Argiope year bec...I wonder if it's been a great Argiope year because it was a great (?) grasshopper year. Lots of lunch on the hop available out there!Joy K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06200194467024962551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517369101045652978.post-48677139722239754392010-10-16T11:34:57.836-05:002010-10-16T11:34:57.836-05:00Interesting that you had a great year with Argiope...Interesting that you had a great year with Argiopes. Glad you did.<br />We saw very few this year compared with the past two years when we had lots. Possibly because we had a very harsh winter last year. Hopefully we'll have a 'normal' winter this year and they'll be back in greater numbers. Afraid it might take a few years before things are back to normal though.JSKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05304860411928147546noreply@blogger.com