I had vague plans for taking a day trip yesterday but I just could not get motivated to leave the house! And it's just as well, because I found plenty to do around here -- like photograph more bugs in the garden.
That's a flower crab spider, above, waiting on an inula blossom for a careless bee or other bug to come along. Rather than spin a web, these spiders ambush insects that come to feed on flowers.
Here's a green shield bug on a lupine leaf.
I'm not sure what this is -- some kind of legionnaire fly, I believe, hanging out on our burdock.
All this photography occasionally has practical value. The night before last, I was lying in bed editing my pictures from the day, when I zoomed in on one and saw that a plant in the background was very wilted. So I ran outside and watered it in the dark of night -- which must have made the Russians wonder what I was up to -- and in the morning it was fine. Whew! Funny that I didn't notice it when I was taking the picture.
I did succeed in making a dentist's appointment, so I have that next week. A week from today, in fact.
I'm reading a fascinating book called "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers," by Jenn Shapland. It's a combined study of the life of McCullers and her writing, and a sort of memoir of Shapland's own evolution as a writer and lesbian. Shapland believes that McCullers was also a lesbian and biographers and other scholars essentially forced her into the closet in the years after her death, in 1967, by minimizing her relationships with women. She tries to more fully explore that aspect of McCullers's life and identity, even living for a time in McCullers's former family home in Columbus, Ga. I'm not sure I entirely buy Shapland's premise that McCullers's sexuality wasn't acknowledged, because I'm sure I've known for years that she was at least bisexual -- and where I learned that I have no idea -- but it's still an interesting book. (And granted, bisexual and lesbian are not the same thing!) It's making me want to read some of McCullers's writing again -- it's been years since I read anything by her.
I'm reading a fascinating book called "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers," by Jenn Shapland. It's a combined study of the life of McCullers and her writing, and a sort of memoir of Shapland's own evolution as a writer and lesbian. Shapland believes that McCullers was also a lesbian and biographers and other scholars essentially forced her into the closet in the years after her death, in 1967, by minimizing her relationships with women. She tries to more fully explore that aspect of McCullers's life and identity, even living for a time in McCullers's former family home in Columbus, Ga. I'm not sure I entirely buy Shapland's premise that McCullers's sexuality wasn't acknowledged, because I'm sure I've known for years that she was at least bisexual -- and where I learned that I have no idea -- but it's still an interesting book. (And granted, bisexual and lesbian are not the same thing!) It's making me want to read some of McCullers's writing again -- it's been years since I read anything by her.
I have never heard of a flower crab spider! Are there lots of them around? Is it worth trying to look for one?
ReplyDeleteWe see them in our garden every year, usually starting around this time. They lurk on or underneath lots of flower blossoms. Keep an eye on any open-faced flower that is likely to be visited by a bee and you might see one.
DeleteI attached a link above to give more info. Here it is:
Deletehttps://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/flower-crab-spider
Come on let's crawl
ReplyDeleteGotta crawl, gotta crawl
To the Ugly Bug Ball
To the ball, to the ball
And a happy time we'll have there
One and all
At the Ugly Bug Ball
Poor bugs! What did they do to deserve being called ugly?!
DeleteBugs! You need anti-histamine cream after walking to the end of our garden at the moment. I spent yesterday afternoon pruning a philadelphus. I'll be up in the middle of the night tonight rubbing it on all over.
ReplyDeleteI've been bitten by something too. I think they're small mosquitoes?
DeleteNot a bug fan here - the result of having grown up in the buggy South, where they’re BIG. But your pictures are interesting and beautifully shot.
ReplyDeleteOh, believe me, I know all about those big Florida bugs! The thing is, bugs in England are much more benign. Although some do bite (see above), they just barely make a mark compared to bugs in the tropics.
DeleteI also read the Shapland book and found it interesting but got a bit bored with her own story. I then read Lonely Hunter by Virginia Carr which ducks the question of Carson's sexuality as she does with others in the book including obviously gay male couples. However reading between the lines it is clear that, at he very least, Carson had strong crushes on several of her women friends and that her husband was bisexual.
ReplyDeleteNow to reread some of her novels.
How interesting that you also read the book! Did you see it mentioned in "The New Yorker"? That's where I heard about it. I haven't read Carr's biography of McCullers.
DeleteI heard the author interviewed on NPR.
DeleteI've never heard of this writer Carson McCullers, I'll have to look her up.
ReplyDelete"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" is probably her most famous book, but she also wrote "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," "The Member of the Wedding" and "Reflections in a Golden Eye," which was made into a scandalous movie in the '60s with Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando.
DeleteGreat photos. You have a good eye to catch that green shield bug on the lupine. I can appreciate your bugs since they are more than 3k miles away. It's the tiny blighter who bit me on the wrist this morning while sitting at my desk that I appreciate not at all. Large welt developing despite rubbing on antihistamine cream. Grrr.
ReplyDeleteHa! A bit of distance never hurts when dealing with bugs! Fortunately very few of ours bite.
DeleteLots of odd bugs in your garden. I've lost my reading mojo. I manage to keep doom scrolling though.
ReplyDeleteI find that I have to make time for myself to read -- I have to put down the computer and the phone and really focus.
DeleteI have never seen or heard of a flower crab spider. Very cool looking creature.
ReplyDeleteAren't they cool? I feel bad for the bees, but I guess that's nature!
DeleteI love photos of bugs on flowers. It's like an homage to ME! Ha!
ReplyDeleteHa!
DeleteI'm not sure I've read much of anything by Carson McCuller. Sometimes I just feel so ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where I first heard about her, to be honest.
Deletewe have flower spiders but not sure if I've seen the white one.
ReplyDeleteI read The Heart Is A zLonely Hunter long long ago. I think that's the only one of her books I've read.
I remember it being a really good book, although it was long ago for me, too. (Thirty years!)
DeleteYou are good at spotting bugs! I appreciate your great, close-up shots as I wouldn't see these little guys otherwise!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I need new pictures for the blog I just go wander around with the camera for a half-hour or so! We have a lot of insect life out there.
DeleteLove seeing the bugs on the flowers there. Your photos make me want to go out and take a closer look at our flowers and bugs.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely do! You'll be amazed at what you'll find!
DeleteI've got up late at night and gone out to water my plants because I just remembered that I forgot to do it earlier. You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteAnd once you think of it, you just HAVE to do it right away, right? I'm the same.
DeleteThere is quite a lot of insect life going on in your lovely garden. That is an all-around good thing.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely -- it's what we're trying to encourage!
DeleteIt's been a long time since I read anything by Carson McCullers. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is such a beautiful title. Her Wikipedia page describes her as having been married (to a man) and pursuing relationships with women. Apparently her husband was also interested in other men. I'm impressed that you'd get up at night to water a flower. I don't have to water anything. My backyard is flooded again.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Her books all had really great titles. Yeah, they sound pretty adventurous as a couple -- I think they were only nominally married to each other!
DeleteI can’t remember the last time I read something by McCullers. High school maybe when I wouldn’t have understood. Your insects appear to be thriving. Maybe the flower wilted in the photo so you’d water it. The Picture of Dorian Gray?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how we're all expected to read these complex books when we're young, and yet at that age it's hard to absorb them. I laughed at your "Dorian Gray" reference!
DeleteI last read McCullers in freshman year which seems another lifetime ago. I love your photos and the varied colors and textures in your garden.
ReplyDeleteI think I read it when I was just out of college. I picked it up in a used book store, as I recall -- that's where I got a lot of my reading material back then! (It was "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.")
DeleteThe flower crab spider (so aptly named, isn't it?) reminds me of what a bug-eat-bug world it is out there. The carnage goes on right underneath our noses! I find all kinds of bugs wrapped up in spider silk in the spiders' webs here, everything from flies to earwigs to bees.
ReplyDeleteThose are great close-ups.
I had the same thought! You want to "save" them but then the predatory bugs suffer. So you have to just let nature take its course! We have a stand of flowers that are positively abuzz with bees and a spider has built a web across some of them -- I have to resist the impulse to knock it down.
Delete