Colour and Cobwebs
In New Zealand it's Autumn
Dear Readers
Hello! Thanks for being here. Down Under, my home, we’re now very much into the Autumn season. The first and second photos in this post were taken yesterday after a very rainy night/morning. In the afternoon Nigel decided to prune some branches from the walnut tree. The tree is in good hands - he is a Landscape Architect. BTW, “Home” is Tapanui, West Otago. New Zealand.
This morning I opened the lounge curtain and peeked outside to find a stunning display of cobwebs, glistening along the top of the box hedge and looking gorgeous in our foggy weather. Plenty of others in the rest of the garden too - it’s crazy how spiders drape their webs all over the place!
Nigel grew red potatoes and he’s been digging them to store inside. One day he turned up brandishing a large potato. I said, “I’ll weigh that later, what do you think it weighs?” He responds, “Half a kilo”. What do you know.. later I pull out the scales and pop the potato in the bowl - a squeak over 500g - we laughed - absolutely spot on!
The potatoes are a wonderful colour - here’s some after I’ve scrubbed them.
One last thing to leave with you. I’ve added a link to the top menu at my Substack page called Directory. It’s going to be a directory of links to online information that I’ve found interesting and useful. I’m starting with Religious Nationalism so that’s already populated to some extent with links to the work of particular writers/presenters, and other links by category. You may like to have a look around. I’ll add more links over time.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, comments are welcome. ~Liz
What my eye finally turns to is a land bedecked in silk: a million glistening spiderwebs, virtually one to each grass clump. It is like a primeval scaffold that cloaks and entwines the landscape, a silken songline connecting the Earth and sky, horizon to horizon. And, close by, I marvel at the brilliant construction of a web. I then remember some research I read the other day about how some spiders can customise their webs to ensure they get the diet they need (bigger catching area, smaller mesh size for small flies; bigger mesh size, stronger and stickier for grasshoppers and crickets). This put me in mind of Les Murray's 'tankstand spider', which ‘adds a spittle thread to her portrait of her soul'. - Charles Massy, Call of the Reed Warbler
Hello, Ms. Liz!! This post was a pleasant surprise! I have greatly missed receiving "Exploring Colour".
Benjamin and I were recently talking about YOU. We just celebrated "Tuatara Day" on May 2nd with his Tut! "There are exactly as many special occasions in life as we choose to celebrate." - Robert Brault. Thank-you!!