Balmy

In the morning, a wet mist clung to everything, but it was warm enough that the wetness could be ignored.  A mockingbird played with one of the red dogwood berries I had fished out of the water and left on the patio.  An egret waited for breakfast by the dam outfall. 

At lunch time I glimpsed what looked like a zebra swallowtail on a camellia blossom.  It was gone before I could do more than say, "Look!"  Then a cloudless sulphur flitted past.  A big bird grasshopper clung to the window screen long enough for the camera. 

There was only a light breeze on the ground, but clouds streamed out of the Southwest while higher clouds seemed to move more slowly and closer to due East.  I again saw a leaf that appeared to be floating in mid air and discovered a huge web stretching from the creek edge to the trees along the pool and a dozen feet high. There was no sign of the spinner.  A periwinkle clung to a spartina stalk.  I relocated the Argiope egg sack.  The saltbush was decked out in white but the saltmarsh fleabane's pink flowers had wilted to brown.  Sassafras leaves had turned a caramel brown.  The goldenrod did not seem to have attracted insects. 

The water was warmer and actually pleasant.  A drowned camel cricket floated among the leaves.  Innumerable ground beetles waited for rescue.  Three spiders preferred to climb the walls. There were also a couple of the tiny velvet-black caterpillars floating.  A jumping spider sat on the slick chrome railing.  The sun got through the clouds frequently as the afternoon went on.

A Carolina wren investigated the hose bib, the mealworms, and under the rosemary.  A song sparrow perched and a cardinal preened in the camellia. There was another spectacular evening sky on my way to Norfolk, though I was inside before the sun set.  And a lot of rain fell before I came back.