Moss takes a minor role
Yesterday’s post gave you a close view of a moss carpet in northwest Austin on November 1st. Many spiderwebs parallel to the ground lay near by, made conspicuous by the myriad dewdrops that had settled on them. Because it’s hard to see details at this scale, click the thumbnail below for a closer look at some of the sparkly dewdrops.
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UPDATE. Six weeks ago I wrote a commentary pointing out that inflation is as much of a tax as any that a legislature imposes on you. Inflation makes your money worth less. People who have lived within their means and saved for retirement—like me!—find that their savings won’t go as far as expected. Those who can least afford inflation—the poor—are affected most by the rising prices inflation causes.
At the time I wrote my commentary, authorities had calculated the U.S. inflation rate to be 5.4%. Since then the figure has been updated to 6.2%, the highest rate in three decades. And still the current administration is pushing to spend trillions of dollars more, despite the fact that our country is already $29 trillion in debt. It’s delusional: borrowing additional trillions of dollars will only drive the inflation rate higher and do even more damage than this year’s profligate spending has already done.
© 2021 Steven Schwartzman
Nice collection of dew bubbles on this sheet web. First of all surprised you had dew (like fog I thought that was unusual for your area) and secondly that you were out early to see it.
Steve Gingold
November 20, 2021 at 5:39 AM
You’re right that fog is unusual here. Dew is more common, especially at this time of year. I checked the metadata and found I took this picture later than you probably thought, 10:25. Ashe juniper trees at mostly shaded the area, so the dew on the spiderwebs hadn’t yet evaporated.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2021 at 6:15 AM
The thumbnail view is impressive. Your high-resolution camera produces spectacular images.
Peter Klopp
November 20, 2021 at 8:09 AM
It does. I’m happy to have 50 megapixels to play with.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2021 at 8:24 AM
Drops on a sheet web are a great subject, lots of fine details in your image.
tomwhelan
November 20, 2021 at 9:00 AM
I’ve found some sheet webs hard to photograph because of all the junk from the ground. This web lent itself pretty well, especially at f/29.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2021 at 10:56 AM
Almost looks like frogspawn.
Heyjude
November 20, 2021 at 6:14 PM
That’s not something I have experience with, so I looked at pictures of it. I see why you thought that, and also a difference: the dark dot at the center of each entity in the spawn.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2021 at 8:22 PM
As pretty as the uniform droplets are, I really like the larger ‘cabochons,’ which I assume were formed by droplets joining together as the web sagged under the water’s weight. The delicate green underlayer is a nice complement to the dewdrops.
shoreacres
November 20, 2021 at 6:14 PM
I had to look up cabochon, an augmentative form of the Old North French caboche that has given us cabbage. I’m with you in assuming the larger drops coalesced from smaller ones. Too bad I couldn’t find an area where the entire underlayer was green.
Steve Schwartzman
November 20, 2021 at 8:28 PM
Nature’s beautiful details – made into a lovely image. 🙂
Hubby is just about to retire and having the same thoughts about inflation as you. We haven’t found any good answer for how to protect our savings either.
Ann Mackay
November 21, 2021 at 7:07 AM
Happy soon-to-be-retirement.
Some people put a portion of their savings into land or real estate, which I’ve never done (except for our home). Others buy precious metals, something I haven’t ever tried. We have about a third of our savings in the stock market, which of course has its ups and inevitably its nerve-wracking downs.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2021 at 7:19 AM
If we bought land I’d be wanting to turn it into a little nature reserve…probably not helpful as a monetary investment but it would be so satisfying. (I can always dream!)
Ann Mackay
November 21, 2021 at 11:24 AM
Right: land for a little nature reserve would be a rewarding investment, even if not a financially rewarding one.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2021 at 2:26 PM
Check out the comment below by Littlesundog, who mentioned you.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2021 at 8:58 PM
I often find spider webs like this, and try to avoid damaging them if I can. They seem to be everywhere this time of year, so avoiding stepping on them or driving over them can be a challenge. The thumbnail shows the bedazzling effect of the dewdrops – what a lovely home to live in, don’t you think?
Forrest retired this year, and of course there were folks who wondered if it was wise to retire. I say, why not? Why not enjoy it while we can? Life is about rolling with whatever we’re dealt and doing the best we can. And I would tell Ann to go ahead and buy a little piece of land. Ours is a little slice of wild – a sanctuary for critters, and a place we continually learn from by observing. The best thing we did was to let the orchard go wild and quit trying to keep it groomed. It’s teeming with wild critters and all sorts of interesting plants. We’ve learned so much being stewards of the land. It’s a very happy place for us.
Littlesundog
November 21, 2021 at 5:45 PM
Now you’ve got me fantasizing living in a bejeweled world like the one in the closeup. With modern computer graphics I’ll bet someone could make a movie showing what it would be like.
Time is zooming away so quickly that enjoying life while we can sounds like the right way to go. (Especially with the pandemic, it seems like we’ve lost two years.) You guys seem thrilled with having your property as a refuge full of plants and animals—a very happy place for you indeed. I’ll tell Ann to take a look at what you said.
Steve Schwartzman
November 21, 2021 at 8:57 PM
If I ever have a little money to spare, I would do it – but for now, the garden is being made as wildlife-friendly as I can. It makes me very happy to see the little visitors that arrive here. 🙂
Ann Mackay
November 25, 2021 at 3:57 PM
We do the best with what we have.
Steve Schwartzman
November 25, 2021 at 5:36 PM
This is an interesting found still-life Steve. I like it. I did something somewhat similar recently with fallen pine cones, sticks and a little snow.
denisebushphoto
November 28, 2021 at 2:45 PM
Hooray for little still lifes! They let a nature photographer do more with less.
Steve Schwartzman
November 28, 2021 at 4:29 PM