This Great Spangled Fritillary has been visiting over the past few days.

For the next few days I am going to bring you a photo from my garden. Most of them will contain a creature or bug of some kind. Today’s photo is of what I call “the african mask bug.” To me his body pattern looks like an african tribal mask.

sigh. How would you like the name of “Mrs. Robinson”? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the coo, coo, ca-choo thing thrown back at me when I state my name. Sharing a name with an infamous seductress of young manhood is not always easy. At least most teenage to college-aged young men of today have no clue who Mrs. Robinson is. Let’s face it, they weren’t even born yet when the movie The Graduate came out back in 1967.

That being the case, I am spared their fresh-cheeked, sly, knowing grins. You know the sort of grin I mean—kind of lop-sided as it spreads slowly over their faces, glancing up at me out of the corner of their eyes, not quite making eye contact. What do they imagine they will see in my eyes? An invitation to seduction? Unmitigated lust? Anne Bancroft?

It’s hard to imagine that Anne Bancroft was only 36 years old when she starred in her infamous role (Dustin Hoffman was 30). Just 36. She was supposed to be 40-ish and he was supposed to be 20. I am somewhat past that now, and yet at my tender young age when the movie came out, I considered her ancient. I couldn’t imagine what a young attractive man would find in an “older woman” like that. I’m sure that I appear just as ancient to the young men of today. It’s hard to come to terms with, yet so very true. I never had children so I feel more like a teenager than someone’s mother, nor do I think like one.

The neighbors’ sons who are 20-ish called me Mrs. Robinson. I cringed inside every time they did, although I don’t think they’ve ever seen the movie. They are just showing respect for their elders. ouch. I know that. But, it doesn’t make me feel any better. Or any younger for that matter.  So, I asked them just to call me Lynne. Somehow I feel more comfortable with that. Fourteen-going-on-fifteen-going-on-thirty neighbor Luke who has looked after the cats for us when we’re gone is a different story. I know for a fact that he has seen the movie. He calls me Mrs. Robinson too, but I haven’t asked him to call me Lynne. Somehow it just doesn’t seem right. So, I think we’ve settled on Mrs. R.

Hey, at least I don’t have a daughter ...

P.S. My sister dated a guy, (Wayne) that looked a lot like Dustin Hoffman at about the same time as this movie came out. Weird.

I know, I know. Most people find spiders creepy. I don’t mind them as long as a) they don’t jump on me b) I don’t run into their webs unknowingly. Last week a large spider of unknown species (but I think it may be a Garden Orb Weaver) claimed our sliding door to the deck as its home. You saw the web in a previous post. The spider is still here. And,  it’s still building its web every night. Unfortunately, this is the door we always let the dogs out and use ourselves most of the time. Each and every night it spins an elaborate web. Every morning finds the web gone (except for the morning when Rick walked into it) and the spider retreats into the door track above. Sleeping I guess, or whatever spiders do.

It’s fast too. The other night we went swimming in the pool. The web was not there when we went out. A half hour later upon coming back in to the house I walked smack into its newly completed web. It’s a strong web too because I didn’t really damage it. Thank God the spider was not right in the middle like it usually is.

You may be bored by the following photos, but I thought it was kind of fun to take a photo of each web. They are all different. Which one gets your vote for the best one?

Web for Wednesday, July 16th

Web for Thursday, July 17th

Web for Friday, July 18th

Web for Saturday, July 19th

Web for Sunday, July 20th

Web for Monday, July 21st (this one is a bit sparse and messy)

Last night the spider got a very late start. I only managed to snap its photo while in the process of spinning. We watched it for a while but it didn’t seem comfortable with the light on, so we let it be

I know most people would either kill it (no!!) or remove it, but neither Rick or I can bear to do it. It seems harmless enough and doesn’t cause any problems (unless you forget it’s there) so we decided to just let it be and see how long it keeps this up. I find myself looking forward to each night’s new design.

The little old web maker itself:

Here in NJ the fireflies are pretty much done. We have a few hanger-ons, but for the most part they’ve all found their mate in life. We heard our first cicada of the season a few days ago, so they have taken over where the fireflies left off. So far it sounds like only a pitiful few that have been sent to warm up the orchestra. We expect symphony proportions before too long. Can’t wait. I don’t think I could ever live again in a place where fireflies and cicadas don’t live. They are an integral part of summer.

The hummingbird moths are out in force. I just love them! Such funny little creatures with their part bird/part insect appearance.

The turkeys brought their new crop of babies around yesterday and also this morning. Turklets is what I call them. Too cute for words.

I also had a nighttime visit from a bear around 10:30 p.m. I was here in the office and I heard noises from just outside the window where the construction trailer is parked. The dogs went berserk. I stepped outside and turned on the light, but I couldn’t see anything. I did hear something heavy moving off into the woods though, and not ten minutes later the dogs were furiously barking (from inside the house) at something in the back yard or possibly on the deck. I couldn’t imagine anything a bear would want with spent plywood and other assorted junk from out bathroom rip out. That is until this morning when I saw a paper sack dragged out into the front yard just yards away from the trailer. Closer inspection of the trailer bed showed a half-eaten sandwich tossed in there from the plumber’s lunch yesterday. AHA! I can only assume the bear either moved off due to the dogs or because there were nails sticking straight up from pieces of wood that he/she might have encountered in their search for lunchmeat.

Our house renovations are moving along albeit slowly. The kitchen is pretty much complete except for the backsplash and new kitchen window.

We “moved” out of our bedroom two weeks ago for the complete bath remodel and probably have another two weeks to go before we can “move” back in. My day starts at 7:30 when the crew arrives. Cats have to be rounded up and closed off in the bedroom we are camping in, dogs corralled downstairs in their basement run.

Our house has turned into a construction zone. Workers come in and go out. Up the stairs, down the stairs they go, tracking dog hair and construction residue all the way. The music of saws, drills and hammers resonates through the house. The dogs bark every time either the plumber or electrician go down to the basement. There is no escaping the constant din. I could leave the house, but I always seem to be needed to answer questions throughout the day. I can escape to the pool, and since it’s supposed to be 90 degrees today, I just might do that. To the work crew’s credit, they arrive early and most of the time they leave early (mid-afternoon) which helps some.

Our bathroom the way it looked before:

Our bathroom now:

As you can see we have a way to go yet. We are completely reconfiguring everything in it, closing off the old door and cutting a new one so we can have a proper walk-in closet in the dressing area off the bedroom that was not being used for anything. The toilet, tub, shower and vanities are all flipped from where they used to be. Quite the project! It’s going to be great when it’s done.

While all that is going on inside the house, an industrious spider (and one very ugly spider it is I might add) has been busy outside our sliding door to the deck doing some web building. See what I mean? Construction everywhere! Every night it spins its complex web, only to be gone the next morning when I let the dogs out. Imagine, all that work for one night! At least we’ll have a little bit more to show for all our inconveniences than Mr. Spider. At least I certainly hope so!