Little Bits of Nature Updates and News:

A little over a week ago ...before the floods of hurricane Lee... I was driving to the Town Square Mall, and went up route 26, then on to route 17 where I could get off at Old Vestal Road. One has to speed up to 65 to get into the traffic, so I stepped on the gas. Then I saw something bobbing like a tiny balloon in the wind, and saw it was my spider. Immediately I thought, "This is too fast," and put on my blinker to show I was slowing down for the exit, and checked the rearview mirror, and then the left side mirror, and he was GONE. Can you believe I felt really badly about it. What is it with me? Am I getting daft, or am I just more appreciative in my old age of the small miracles of life. I felt like this spider, as small as he was, was a companion while I was driving. He may be a little distracting when he climbs out in full breeze at 50 mph, but nearing 65 I thought I'd unfortunately found out the tinsel strength of a spiderweb with spider attached. I think it was Tom that cleaned the old webs away. I missed my critter.

I thought about this for days... then as I was going into Vestal to pick up a gift card for my granddaughter at the high and dry Target, the other stores having been in a state of cleaning up after Lee caused the Susquehanna to back up, and the whole parking lot down in the flood plain of Town Square covered with-by then-dry mud, as I'm nearing Target and checking my side view I see... A WEB. I have my spider back. I haven't actual seen him yet, so I don't know if it's my spider or an offspring. Point is, I have a companion again who sometimes comes out to ride in the breeze when the car is zipping down the road. I somehow hope it's the old spider, and I didn't see him crawl back behind the mirror. Either way I think this is Cool.

Here's something more cute, but just as cool. I noticed a small hole in the middle of one of my paths in the woods. I always wonder what makes these holes. They don't have a bunch of dirt around them like a mole would leave when digging up exiting his hole. Anyway, I picked up a nearby rock that just fit into the hole. It didn't fill it up, but it was a start. I went home on a different path, and hadn't given it another thought until the following day, yesterday. I was with Tom at the time. There was the hole, and in front of it was the same rock I'd put in. I told Tom, "Whatever made that hole, pushed out that rock. I wonder if it will do it again," and I dropped the rock back in. Today we went on our morning walk again, and sure enough, the rock was on the path ahead of the hole where the little beastie pushed it. I pointed this out to Tom, who kind of shrugged a "so what" impression of it. I said, "It's like I have a relationship with this little beast. I put the rock in, and he shoves it out. It probably is an annoying relationship to him, whatever it is, but, nevertheless, a relationship. It feels like I'm interacting, not just observing Nature." [An abbreviated version is on my Facebook page.]

The Rock is IN


The Rock is OUT



[I suppose I should be writing about how great a river our creek was when the rain from Hurricane Lee flooded the lake. But it didn't affect us in the highlands, and was so devastating for many familiar neighborhoods in Vestal as well as just about everywhere along the Susquehanna in NY and PA that it seems ridiculous for me to complain about the fallen trees and the forceful river that my little creek became. All is quiet now, but there is so much destruction and cleanup in the lowlands that I don't know where to begin helping out in some at least monetary way.]