The storm last night dropped the temperature but kicked up the humidity till it was a misery. We consulted with a shoreline restoration expert about getting our marsh back. So we all stood down by the water and dripped sweat, or at least I did. The dog had an attack of FOMO (fear of missing out) and insisted on joining K. Then he explored the mud which, fortunately, was fairly firm. There was no sign of the Argiope down there but I found one right outside my window and wondered it it was the same spider. It had a huge web compared to the one in the little nook beside the rue. Plenty of wasps and bees returned to the mountain mint.
The rain made porridge of the barkbutter balls but that didn't stop the birds. A brown thrasher was too hungry to care about my camera. Later I saw a Carolina wren on the feeder. The cardinal papa was still feeding his offspring.
I found two frogs in the skimmer and a skink swimming. The smaller of the two frogs had wedged itself into a corner right under the lid so when I removed that, there it was, blinking. The bigger frog had buried itself under the leaves and when I pulled the leaves away, it leaped back into the pool. I ignored it while I dealt with all the debris that the storm had blown into the water.
Then I found the skink but it apparently thought I was a worse fate than drowning. Eventually I caught it and as I swam back to the steps, I noticed that the frog had gotten out of the pool and was sitting on the concrete. After giving me a chase, the skink decided to play dead, but eventually it ran away.
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