A Packed Weekend

Last weekend, my sweetie flew in from Pennsylvania.  As always, I asked him what he wanted to do that weekend and he wanted to go to the Keys...fishing, swimming and kayaking.  So we did!  

First we had to find a place to stay...the Conch on Inn was just a little too scary for us, so we settled on the Seafarer on southern Key Largo.  No bad - not great- but not bad. Lot's of ambiance!  I'd stay there again.

Ok, so my honey wanted to fish for tarpon from the kayak. It's a do able thing, just not in a tandem kayak!  So I took him to Robbie's so he could see some up close.  Some of them were in the 5' range...pretty cool!

We wanted to go to John Pennekamp State Park, but they were turning people away saying they were too full.  Well...thankfully I knew of a place we could dump the yak and still paddle into Pennekamp and that is exactly what we did.  We had a nice paddle through the mangroves and came out not far from the boat ramp in the park.  We pulled out next to the first swimming hole and jumped in.  The water was bath temperature, but still felt great!  After a while, we got back in the yak and headed back to my "secret" put in spot.  Thankfully my truck was still there...

Next up?  Fishing!  We settled for fishing off a bridge and for a couple hours had some fun in the sun...my honey catching all the fish (yeah, I am still a little pissed about that!)...Spanish Mackeral, a jack and a small Mangrove Snapper.  

Down some side street...gotta love the colors!

What weekend would be complete without going for a couple caches?  There was one located near this place, but some guys were hanging out, so we bypassed it.  That hotel has the Conch on Inn beat on the creepiness scale, though!

And just down the road is Jules Undersea Lodge... an actual "hotel" that you have to dive to get to.  Google it!  Kinda cool...

Leaving the Keys,we made a quick stop at the Botanical Site off Card Sound Road.  These flowers were out front, Scorpiontails.  I think they're kinda cool!

Still a few hours of daylight left as we headed back to Miami so I suggested a quick run into the Everglades National Park.  Of course....we had to stop for a cache along the way!  As my honey went bushwhacking to find "Frog Pond" (one of my caches), I stayed and took a couple pics of the storm moving in.

On the way to Royal Palm in ENP, we stopped to check out this little water snake in the middle of the road. Snakes can be so dumb sometimes!

Anhinga Trail

Pretty, huh?

Monday before making the drive back to Ft. Lauderdale Airport, we went to Key Biscayne and checked out Cape Florida at Bill Baggs State Park.

What's left of Stiltsville out in Biscayne Bay.

Well, a couple days later, I decided to go on up to Lake Placid to cut the grass and just chill out for a couple days.  This big lady was there to greet me right above the front door.  I left her in peace...she didn't mind me and I didn't mind her.

After cutting the grass, thunder started booming and the winds picked up.  I sat on the tailgate of my truck drinking some Gatorade marvelling at the gorgeous sunset in front of me...my stupid camera does NOT do it justice.  The colors were flaming and intense.

As the first rain drops started to fall, I watched a Black Racer duck into my shed.  

That was a smart snake!

And there you have a synopsis of  my last week!  

A Bottle Full of Babies

Of the two brown widows I have sitting on my desk at work, only one so far - Charlotte - has had babies hatch out of one of her egg sacs.

At least 50 itty-bitty spiders...

Getting food into the bottle is a bit of a challenge since they like to gravitate to the top where the opening is.  I have to kind of knock them all down before I can open it to drop insects in. 

I feel like such a homewrecker when I do that.

Matilda's Neighbor

Matilda has  a new neighbor, Charlotte.  Charlotte appears to be a very good mother, even lifting her egg sacs back up after I knocked them (and her) into her new home.  After watching a youtube video of a guy opening up a widow egg sac and having literally hundreds of babies come out, I'm not to keen on letting these eggs hatch.

New Office Pet

You can't see her, but she's safely inside that bottle on my desk. 

Her name is "Matilda" and she's a brown widow spider.

I am thinking that she'd be good for kids to see when we have programming.

She may also be a good deterrent for those who like to sit at my desk for reasons unknown...

A big thanks to Mitch...my supplier!

Babies on the way!

I found these two spiders on a Gumbo Limbo tree at work, guarding what I assume are their odd egg sacs.  I have googled and googled but cannot find anything that helps me identify what kind of spiders these are.  Any ideas?  They are small and pretty flat...

There are two of these spiders hanging out guarding their respective sacs in a nearby tree.  I "believe" they are Leucauge venustas.  Again, anyone know for sure?

Who says spiders are ugly?

Argiope spider

My Saturday

Well, it was supposed to rain today and be yucky and blah, but it turned out to be a really nice day! Before me and the kiddos went to the Geo-Event, I walked around my yard and took a few pics. The first one is of this really strange fern my sister gave me. I have no idea what kind it is, so if anyones knows, please tell me!

This is my Voodoo Lily. I saw some at the Fruit & Spice park that were MUCH bigger, but I've only had mine for a short time and am quite happy with how they're growing.

This pic is for Misti. It's the White Beautyberry! If you look closely, you can see the berries - still green. Can't wait to see them turn white! Such a cool plant!

Ok, I know...another spider??? Yes, deal with it. This is a tropical orbweaver. They come out at night and build these crazy-big webs and look very creepy hanging out in them. In my yard, they tend to set up shop right in our walking paths. We all go outside at night armed with brooms, waving them out in front as we walk. When the sun comes up, they go into hiding in the leaves...that's what this one is doing, They look 100 times bigger at night and 1000 times creepier, too!

We went to a Geo-Event this afternnon that was just fantastic! It was in an air conditioned auditorium. Pizza, snacks, drinks and prizes for everyone! I walked away with a few coins, an ammo can to hide, a smaller container to hide and tons of smaller stuff that will be great for trade swag. It was awesome!! The host, Silly Gilley, has set the bar very high for the next person who holds an event. I'm having one November, but it's a CITO (cache in- trash out), so I'm not worried about presents and give-aways. He really went overboard, but it made for a great event.

After the event, we met up with a couple other cachers and went to find a very creepy cache...Redfoot. It's supposed to be a local legend, like the SwampApe. We had so much fun finding this one! I can't imagine doing it in the daylight. The scary factor is much higher at night! I don't want to give anything away in case any cachers happen to read this, but it is alot of fun :) 2 thumbs up! I'll probably have some pics of the event to post tomorrow in case anyone's interested. Until then...good night, sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!

My Lovely Tomato, R.I.P.

We went to Lake Placid this weekend to cut the grass and just check on things. I was going to trim my plumbago until I saw this Argiope aurantia hanging out in the middle of it...
Beautiful, huh? I'm not a spider fan, but I think this one is just really pretty. And she was HUGE, too!

Then, I came home from work this evening and found this... (ignore my mom's foot)

AAARRRGGGGG!!!!!!!!!! It ate my tomato!!!!!! @#$*&!!!! You don't mess with me and get away with it! I have loppers and I know how to use them...

Die you slimey destroyer of my beautiful tomato plant! Muhahahahaha!!!

What I don't understand is, where in the hell did it come from? I mean, I don't have any other tomatoes, my neighbors don't have tomatoes I don't live near a tomato field. So WHERE DID IT COME FROM and WHY??????

Butterflies

Above: A Gulf fritillary taken by Sam Cumbess

I don't know much about butterflies, but am trying to learn! The place where I work is a butterfly "hot spot" that attracts people from all over the country. Next Friday, a geo-friend of mine from FAU is supposed to stop in to look for some flutterbys. I plan on walking around with her and learning as much as I can. If we find anything cool or just get decent pics, I'll post them here. (Taking good pictures of butterflies is very, very hard to do! Don't believe me? Go outside and try it yourself!!)

In the meantime, here are some pictures I have taken over the last few weeks. I am missing one of a Dina yellow. When I find it, I'll add it in.

Possibly a Mimosa yellow (they say they're rare!)

A Ruddy Daggerwing

A Julia butterfly being very cooperative

Hemiargus ceraunus?

Off subject: This succulent is taking over my backyard in Highlands County. If anyone knows how to eradicate it, other than pulling by hand, PLEASE let me know! Also, I cannot figure out exactly what kind it is. So, again, if anyone knows, please...



Had to snap a picture of the cool web this young argiope spider made in a lantana bush. When these spiders are young, their web looks like this...a sort of circular mass of zig-zags, but as they age, their webs change and they tend to have one vertical zig-zag strip in the middle of the web. No one is really sure why this is. The theory I tend to believe that the more zig-zaggy mass of the young ones help to camoflauge it more from prey.