First wildflower for 2022

Yesterday I went to an undeveloped lot on Balcones Woods Dr. where I’m accustomed to photographing ten-petal anemones (Anemone berlandieri) at this time of year. I found a smattering of those flowers, and on one of them I also found a tiny spider; it might have been a quarter of an inch (6mm) long.

For a closer look at the spider, click the thumbnail below.

UPDATE: Bugguide.net has identified the subject as a lynx spider in the genus Oxyopes.

Anemones typically rise only inches above the earth, so my normal photographic posture when portraying them is to lie on a mat on the ground and aim upward as much as possible. I took advantage of a dark area in the distance to “cap” the flower. Fortunately the closer distracting stuff on the ground stayed out of focus.

 

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Garry Kasparov is arguably the greatest chess player in our lifetime. “From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for a record 255 months overall for his career, a record that outstrips all other previous and current players.”

Garry Kasparov is also a Russian advocate for freedom and democracy, and currently chairman of the Human Rights Foundation. His years of experience give him better insights into Russian dictator Putin and the depredations now taking place in Ukraine than most Americans could ever have. You can profit from those insights by listening to yesterday’s interview with him on the Megyn Kelly Show. The interview takes up the show’s first two segments and lasts a total of 39 minutes.

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman