Asia looks out over her domain.

At the end of half-mile long Crab Apple Allée at Skylands, the statues of the four continents (Asia, Africa, America and Europe) stand guard.

Asia fascinates me from every angle. There is just something about her that draws me in.

Is it her worn features?

Or is it her missing limb?

Haunting.

Do you find her creepy or interesting?

What is with people on craigslist? We had our solar pool cover and the reel advertised on craigslist for about a month. One guy said he wanted it and made arrangements to pick it up at a time that was not at all convenient for us. Rick worked from home that morning so he could be there to help take the reel apart. The appointed time came and went with no email, phone call, and the guy didn’t show up. Thank you (self-serving idiot)!

Fast forward to yesterday. Someone else wanted it, said they were bringing cash and would come to pick it up at 6:00 p.m. yesterday evening. Same scenario as above. No call, no email, no person.

We’ve now taken it off the list. We’ll wait until next spring and advertise it in the pool store and maybe someone with more integrity will want it.

And last night at 3:21 a.m. (or should I say in the wee hours of the morning this morning) we were once again rudely awakened by a huge BANG! Just one, but we both startled awake mumbling “what the heck was that?” It sounded very, very close. I couldn’t get back to sleep just knowing another one would probably be coming. I had sort of heard something in the distance before that but only on the fringes of my sleepy brain.

I did fall back asleep until 4:12 a.m. when another firework went off, this time not as close. What the ???

Rick thinks it is someone driving around in a car throwing fireworks out the window and we only hear them about once per hour because they are making some kind of circuit around our area. I did not hear a car drive by, but who knows? It’s completely and totaling annoying. I’m sure whoever is doing it is having a great time. Maybe once school starts next week we won’t be having any more nonsense.

I need to end this post with a soothing photo!

Sleepy bee. This time of year the nectar must be pretty potent!

Early morning sunlight sifting through my backyard trees.

Here in New Jersey August is a pretty mild month. It should be the hottest but it’s not. Somehow I think it’s the weather’s way of segueing us into autumn. Every year for the past six years that we’ve lived here it’s been the same. So why do I keep expecting it to be somehow different each year?

Now the cicadas are joined by multitudes of crickets at night, each one trying to outdo the other. The cicadas are not ready to give up their orchestra seats to the crickets just yet.

If this is typical of all the other years we are not quite done with the heat just yet. There is always a week at the beginning of September where the temperatures soar for the last hurrah of summer.

My little clutch of turkeys come nearly every morning. A hen with two half-grown babies. The other day when I looked out I thought a recognized the sole turkey that was at the feeding station. I’m certain it’s Thomas back again! He has the same funny feather that sticks out all by itself on his chest. And even more exciting news: Thomas has hooked up with Lady Hen and they are now traveling as a family group. Good for Thomas!

Thomas and family.

Some trees are getting a head start.

Not sure if they are truly changing because of the season or if it’s stress from not enough moisture.

The air feels different; it’s hard to explain, but it’s there.

It’s easier to see the difference in the light. It’s softer. The way it filters through the trees. The shadows in the morning. The increasingly shorter days. All due to the sun dipping lower in the sky.

Me and the big pine in our front drive this morning.

Autumn is on it’s way. It’s real. Tangible. I think I’m ready.

Oh, NO! Please say it isn’t so!

Sunday morning I made my usual visit to Charlotte’s web only to find it spider-less. The web had not been re-spun from the previous day: still the same old design and looking a bit tattered. Not her usual neat web. I looked around but could not see her hiding in the foliage surrounding the web.

Mid-morning after our trip in to the farmer’s market in Warwick I checked again. Still no big yellow-and-black Charlotte.

It was depressing to find her web abandoned. Almost as if I had lost a friend.

I figured she had moved on to better catching grounds since I had not seen her with a kill for some days now.

Fast forward to the afternoon.

Rick got in the pool first, and while standing in the shallow end he remarked that there was a critter crawling on the bottom. I told him to just scoop it up with his hands, but being the big brave man that he is, he refused. I told him that if it was on the bottom it was surely dead.  There was nothing for it but for me to get the skimmer.

I put the skimmer in the water and captured whatever it was in the net and brought it to the surface.

Oh no. It was my Charlotte. I could not believe it. Tears threatened to collect in the corners of my eyes. I yelled to Rick “It’s Charlotte!” and at first he did not believe me. When he saw how upset I was he knew that I was not just kidding him.

Poor Charlotte. I felt horrible. Was I somehow responsible for her death?  You see, we did sleep out for a few hours on the air mattress in the cabana and did not cover up the pool until much later than we usually do. Was she in a habit of wandering away from her web in the middle of the night?

What made her leave her cozy web? Did she commit spider suicide? Or did she unwittingly fall into her watery grave? 

Just two days ago I had taken her photo yet again. Here she is in all her worldly spider glory.

At least I know what happened to her, but I think it would have been better if I could imagine her off spinning a new web somewhere.

I’ll miss you Charlotte!

I have to admit, we were lazy.

But we did manage to achieve goal #3 of camping out in the cabana by the pool Saturday night. We both fell asleep listening to the cicada and cricket symphony, only to be awakened shortly before midnight by Bella’s one bark. She wanted to go and in go to bed! So we stumbled around half-asleep and closed up the pool and headed inside.

Sunday morning we got up and drove to Warwick, NY for the Sunday farmer’s market per usual. We weren’t yet sure about the Ren Faire but we had plenty of time to decide.

What’s wrong with this photo (it’s also the reason I took it)?

This is coming in to my favorite time of the year for the market. Lots of things to choose from! We came home with zucchinis, a striped eggplant, a small butternut squash, a fresh log of goat cheese, some poblano peppers, lettuce, parsley, bread, a free range chicken, and a flat iron steak, all of which will feature in our meals in the upcoming week.

Once we got home we realized we just weren’t in the mood for the Ren Faire. After our full day Saturday of canoeing and lots of swimming we just wanted to relax. We’ll go next weekend since we have three whole days to choose from.

We managed a little bit more of goal #4, which was to swim since it was a beautiful day. Doesn’t the water look delicious? The temperature is holding at 75 degrees right now and once you get in and get wet it feels really good.

A few more weeks and the pool will be closed. Boo.

When I picked up my camera yesterday and started changing the settings for what I knew I was going to be taking photos of I realized that I had left the camera on settings I had not intended while taking my Green Turtle Pond photos. No wonder I had so many where the color was off and lots not in complete focus! Duh! The bad thing about having more knowledge about my camera’s numerous setting off the manual modes is that, well, maybe I have too much knowledge! Check thy settings, Lynne, every time you pick up the camera!!

Hey, third photo class tomorrow: White Balance and Composition!