Now I know why our garden spider likes her spot so well. Good eats! I think this might be a cicada, but I’m not sure. It was interesting to see her take the wings off first. Later in the day the carcass of the bug was hanging by a thread of the web and had pretty much destroyed the web in the process. By the next morning the web was re-spun and pretty as could be.

By now you know my penchant for naming creatures that hang around my yard. Since this is the third week for this particular spider I have named her Charlotte. Original, eh?

Long live Charlotte!

I am now sitting pool side because its days are numbered. We know we only have one, maybe two more weekends left of pool enjoyment before we have to close it. The temperature is down to 77 degrees now, which Rick reassures me is at the low end of what the Olympic pool is allowed to be. I would rather the top end than the low end, but it is what it is.

As I lay on my float with the not-too-strong sun beating down on my body it feels good. Like my veins are filled with warmed jelly instead of blood. I feel incapable of lifting myself up from my supine position.

After looking at the bright sunlight, when I close my eyes the sun still dances in front of my closed eyelids like the flickering of an old film reel.

The strident voices of children drift over from our neighbor’s who are having a party.

The air show is in town today and once in a while they fly over our house in a burst of spectacular showmanship.

>

or not!

Later on ...

Tonight after swimming 30 lengths of the pool we built a fire in our little fire pit.

The seasons, they are a’changin’.

Figs, that is! This is the first ripe fig of the year. It looks luscious but will only be a bite for both Rick and myself. (Probably about the length of my thumb.)

BUT …

I counted 84 figs on my tree this morning. 84. That number seems staggering, but they are all quite small and they tend to ripen a few at a time. I think this is a good thing since we wouldn’t be able to enjoy them if they all came ripe at at the same time. This way we can savor each and every one of them as they ripen.

P.S. I tried to come up with some witty little ditty similar to the the “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” song for the figs but I failed. (84 figgies on my little tree … 84 figs on my tree. Pick one off, eat it right up, 83 figgies on my little tree ... ??)

Shades of green at Green Turtle Pond. Taken two weeks ago.

And so it begins. The slow slipping down of summer. At first it’s the little things you notice.

The sun. It’s lower in the sky and rises later and sets earlier. It seemed like just the other day we were swimming at dusk which happened around 8:45 p.m. Now it’s around 8:00 p.m. It’s strange that you don’t notice at first, then all of a sudden it hits you: the change of seasons has begun.

There are other indicators. The pool temperature drops by about two degrees and becomes on the edge of swimmable. The cooler nighttime temperatures and the slight change in the angle of the sun are to blame.

The hummingbirds are feeding voraciously at the feeder stocking up for their big flight home. They haven’t been bothering with the feeder and have left it to the bees for the past month and half. Not now.

The other birds seem to be feeding a lot too. More so than usual. I’ve had to fill the bird feeder every other day.

The turkey with her two babies has started showing up every day at the bird feeding area in the front yard. Soon the hens and the toms will all band together and instead of three I’ll have twelve or fifteen turkeys coming.

And they aren’t the only ones. This cute little fox showed up the other day.

My garden spider is still around. I check up on it every morning. I’ve never known a spider to have a web in the same spot for so long! Don’t you think it’s strange? I call this photo Dance with Death.

It’s been a real summer this year. Very warm and humid. Not a lot of rain but enough to keep everything green without watering. The nasty storms over the past few days have pretty much passed us by, growing stronger as they move eastward, leaving us with only a little rain to show for it. We could use more.

I think I’m ready to embrace a different season. Although I hate to lose the pool, I am looking forward to autumn. To opening the windows wide instead of always having the air conditioning on and sleeping cool for a change. To cozy fires in the wood stove to take the chill off a damp day. To stews and chile bubbling away on the stove.

I have no idea if the trees will have good color this year or not. I kind of think they will. Last year was so disappointing with all that moisture we had because the trees just gave up and dropped their leaves without ever really changing. Will not quite normal moisture make for a poor showing as well?

The are predicting a very snowy winter for us which I am not quite ready to think about yet. After last year’s non-winter it could come as quite a shock!

Only time will tell what Mother Nature has in store for us!

We went to the New Jersey State Fair & Horse Show in Sussex County on Sunday. I’m not sure why they get to have the title “State Fair” because it isn’t. Not really. The big state fair has already taken place (in July I think) at the Meadowlands. This is more of a county fair.

I understand that the county of Sussex is all about horses (and agriculture) as you can tell by just driving through it, so it’s no wonder that the fair started as a horse show and grew from there.

It was cute and cozy and just the right size. Rick won me a little plush duck and we rode the ferris wheel.

We walked around all the livestock barns (which I already posted a few pics of in yesterday’s post) and watched a group of kids take their alpacas through a course much like a dog drafting test or temperament test.

We ate some fair food.

We looked through the photos entered in the photo contest, all the exhibits and entries in wine, beer, baked goods, crafts, and the vegetables.

Winners in the Great New Jersey Zucchini Contest resting on their laurels. (or would that be resting on their hay bale?)

Lots of garlic to judge!

These were exhibits in the creative flower arranging. This “cake” won first place. Pretty darned creative, I’d say! Would you like the whole cake?

Or just one slice?

I also loved this one but it didn’t win a ribbon.

There were a few attractions that we skipped. Like this one:

All in all, a good day at the fair!