Dahlia says Good Morning, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
Taken in Seattle, WA in August.
Molecular Sunshine, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
January flowers in Seattle.
Swirl, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
Camouflaged, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
These little spiders turn the color of the plants they’re on and snatch insects, especially bees.
Carousel, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
This beautiful carousel was built around 1940.
Sleepytime at the Spiderling Ball, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
European garden spider (Araneus diadematus), diadem spider, or cross spider
These pinhead-sized spiders hatched in my yard. If you look closely, you can see the yolk sacs still attached to their tiny bellies.
The little spiders stay close to each other the first few days, until they exhaust the yolk sac and start hunting. Their first few webs are disorganized sticky messes and the little spiders seemed rather surprised by the whole thing, for which I couldn’t blame them one bit.
In Seattle, many spider species overwinter, and in this case Mom Spider hovered nearby and anxiously gathered the little ones together and hustled them away when she felt I was too close to them.
A few weeks later these little guys dispersed all over the house, and I spent the next six months routing them from unlikely places (such as my shoes or the silverware drawer) and relocating them, under protest, outside.
Captured with my beloved Raynox macro lens. I wish I’d had a tripod handy, but when a photo presents itself, you just take it, fancy equipment or not.
Sunflower Honey (Bellevue Botanical Gardens), originally uploaded by singingpixel.
Taken at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens outside Seattle.
Globular, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
Or, “squash cheeks,” perhaps.
Old Friends, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
This photo’s title is “Old Friends,” because that’s what they looked like to me.
Paper Flowers, originally uploaded by singingpixel.
A new view of those tiny pinwheel paper fans.
