Look me in the eye, an iridescent-bellied lizard that Jim caught October 17, in the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
The days are beautiful in the Rio Grande Valley. The other morning we woke to a thick fog hovering just above the field. Sun rose, and the warmth slowly burned off the mist.
I wonder if we’d get sick of our favorites seasons if we could magically make them last twice as long as they do normally. If we collapsed summer and fall into a new season, Extra-long Fall, I’d be perfectly happy. Although, we’d miss out on swimming and eating popsicles in the scorching sun. And weekend getaways spent at 9,000 feet.
Eh, scratch that idea.
This is Jim’s favorite time of year. He’s been outdoors every day, raking and cleaning up the yard. He’s working on a project to take out overgrown juniper bushes, rotted railroad ties, and an old leaning fence from the back courtyard. He disappears for hours out there, calling me now and then to come look at the critters he finds.
There are Black Widows galore, although Jim usually leaves those alone. He caught one, a huge girl with a big red hourglass on her belly. The shots I snapped are obscured by the plastic tub we put her in. We’ll release her soon—it’s just a matter of finding a spot far enough away that she won’t be a menace. I know, she’s more afraid of us than we are of her, but she’s the biggest black widow I’ve seen and I don’t want our paths to cross ever again.
Speaking of big spiders, Jim also found a most extraordinary Orb Weaver. Its web filled the entire corner, floor to ceiling, of a shed that came with the place when we moved here. Motivated to put the rarely used space to use, Jim was clearing out a set of old screen doors when he stumbled upon what appeared to be a large walking mushroom.
He coaxed the spongy yellow-white mottled spider onto a walking stick and brought the whole contraption to the back porch for me to see. After I took a few shots, Jim carried the dear back to her home in the clean shed.
It’s a gentle time. Except for last Saturday, when a wicked wind whipped through the valley, turning the sky a gray-white and lashing sheets of rain and hail onto the world. We were drawn to the windows but at the same time fearful that a branch might break from a tree and in through the glass. The storm lasted about 20 minutes, then settled into a steady rain.
Today it’s about 72, on the way to a high of near 80 degrees. Trees are in different stages of becoming yellow, and the Virginia Creeper has suddenly bloomed a ruddy red.
At Sunflower Market, where I just went to restock the pantry, folks sat at tables and chairs set up in the parking lot and ate hot dogs and hamburgers bought off the grill for a dollar. I bought three hamburgers and brought them home with the groceries.
Something’s in the air. This is a fabulous time. We are inside the eye of change.
fall morning (four), a misty morning looking out at the pond in our field in the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico, photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I’m just about to read this. I want to say first though, what incredible pictures! That lizard is so cool looking. That spider scared the crap out of me. That last picture?
Magical.
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Wow – it sure is beautiful where you are! The Orb Weaver is magnificent, the Praying Mantis looks like a patinated bronze sculpture and the lizard resembles a friendly little dragon. fall is my favourite season too. Lately we have had some magical foggy mornings that obscures suburban ugliness and even lends mystery to our humdrum streets and stimulates the imagination to construct a fantasy townscape. Your photos are great. Thanks for sharing them. G
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I kinda love autumn storms, as long as the power doesn’t go out. Something cozy about when ‘when a wicked wind whip(s) through the valley, turning the sky a gray-white and lashing sheets of rain and hail onto the world.’
Have I mentioned you have a way with words?
Anyway, October rocks until the time change. Then it’s just altogether too dark.
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Love the catch and release program. I’m a long time supporter!
…Unless we’re talking Johnny Depp 😉
That last photo is stellar yb.
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I was surprised to see the lizard, larger than life – Just yesterday I saw our local lizard, who lost a tail and grew it back, now has a purple throat. He was hanging out in the Russian sage, tall sprays of lavender blue, so I imagine that is what the color is mimicing. I guess they are part chameleon. Isn’t it amazing?
I’m buying thistle seed in 10 lb bags to keep my finch socks full – they are attracting dozens of brilliant canaries and goldfinches to the kitchen window.
The final photo in your series,the misty morning view of the Sandias, is a scene that is hard to capture. You got it, thanks – it’s beautiful. The autumn certainly has a bittersweet feeling. Maybe more so this year than usual, I am not ready to let go.
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Thanks, lil. Your comment about your lizard blushing purple made me wonder why this lizard would blush blue. I wonder if the color came out more as a result of being captured than replicating its surroundings, although Jim was sitting on an outdoor chair that had a blue cushion and he was wearing blue jeans. Hmmm, makes me wonder.
Ah, I also feel that bittersweet quality. Yesterday I went out to shoot more leaves, and I noticed that while last Saturday the color was brilliant and the leaves still moist and plump, yesterday the leaves had started to crisp up and look brown.
Ditto, heather…Johnny Depp definitely stays in a terrarium in my room (ha!) if I catch him.
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Thanks, amuirin! This group of photos came out of a total of about 100 or so that I took over the past week plus. It kind of hit home the idea that you just have to snap, snap, snap to get a few good ones. I mean, professional photographers know this, but it’s taken me a while to figure it out.
Yeah, you’re right about the storms bringing about a kind of cozy feeling. The sky gets dark at 2 in the afternoon, you turn on lights in the house, and it’s just a wonderful feeling to be inside and warm while it rages outside.
G., thanks. I like your descriptions—the lizard and praying mantis, but also the way you paint the suburbs in fog—a fantasy townscape. For some reason reminds me of Charles Dickens in fall. Ha!
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ybonesy, Wonderful post about Fall, my favorite season (well, next to winter which I love, too). The photographs are amazing. And your writing full of the kind of detail that makes me want to read more.
I clicked on all the photos — My favorite shots: the belly shot of the Lizard or Horned Toad, the Mantis against the texture of the screen, the last valley fog shot, the first shot of the orb spider.
You live in a place full of life. And with Jim always there to converse with the wildlife on an hourly basis and bring it closer to you and the girls, what a gift living on your little piece of New Mexico. I like when you write about the wildlife there because it’s so different here in a watery state like Minnesota.
I don’t think we have the orb spiders. I’ve never seen one before except in your photographs. We don’t have the black widows either (but we did have them when I lived Down South). Nor the lizards. It’s just too wet. I don’t even think we have the praying mantis here either. It’s a whole other world of insects, spiders, and wildlife. I guess whatever can survive our wetness and cold, cold winters.
Liz and I headed outside yesterday afternoon and worked in the yard getting ready for winter. The weekend here has been a beautiful couple of Fall Minnesota days. In the world of Nature, it truly is a fabulous time. And noticing that helps to ease all the chaos swirling around in the man-made portion of the world.
Hey, I have a question about those orb spiders — why do they have those big mushrooms on their backs? Do they have a purpose?
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I’m not sure why, QM. One of the characteristics of orb spiders is their huge bodies—I’m pretty sure that’s how Jim knew what general type of spider this was. Here’s a link with lots of different orb spiders, and you can see that most have these gargantuan body/backs (LINK).
The specific type of this orb spider appears to be Araneus Pima (LINK), and it looks like its body might hold a type of silk used to wrap pray it catches. I’ve never seen this spider before, ever, and I’m surprised, as it seems to be pretty common in NM.
It was a shocker to see it on the end of Jim’s big walking stick, and I’m not sure if in the photo the spider looks as big as it was, but man, it was huge. I would have put my finger in to show some perspective except I was too scared. But if you look at the first photo, you might notice in the background Jim’s legs (he’s wearing denim). That might give some perspective as to the size of the spider.
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WOW, thanks for the link. The orb spiders are a truly beautiful species. They remind me of the black widow, if only in the command of their presence. But the Orb Spiders are not poisonous are they?
Yes, I can see Jim’s jeans in the background. That Orb Spider looks truly HUGE. I hope I get to see one one day. Though I don’t really like spiders crawling on me, they are a good Totem. And I’ve always been fascinated by the way they look and the way they can spin those silk webs.
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QM, I’m glad you brought up the Spider totem. I pulled out the Susan Seddon Boulet (LINK to her biography) animal spirit card (thanks for recommending this pack) for Spider and thought about weaving into this post that description. (In the end I opted to make the post short, so I left out all the totem descriptions for the animals we’ve been seeing.)
Here are highlights from the Spider card:
Protection, aid, wisdom. Spiders…are frequently depicted as helpers, protectors, and creators….The spider grandmother is a source of wisdom and a link to the underworld. She rises from her realm to offer advice, particularly before a dangerous or large undertaking.
A powerful and positive totem to appear in such chaotic times.
We’ve also seen a young cat hanging around. The girls snapped photos of him (we think it’s a boy) although I didn’t include any. And on Thursday morning, I drove down the long dirt road and saw a coyote cross in front of me. Jim had part of our fence down for some reason, so the coyote went into the field, down by the orchard, and crouched in the wet grass as I drove by. I stopped the car, and the coyote just looked at me, very cautiously. The grass is pretty long, but I could still see the coyote. I wished I had my camera, although it was cool to just convene with the animal there for about a minute before driving on.
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Oh, QM, meant to say, Orb Weavers are not posionous to people. Here in NM we have I think three poisionous spiders: the Black Widow, the Brown Recluse, and now I’m forgetting what the third one is.
This particular Orb spider looked almost like a tarantula in terms of its size. If I open my palm, I would guess its body and legs would fill the entire palm. We all definitely freaked out on it. Dee just now looked at the photo and said how much that spider creeped her out. But, only because of how big it was. It truly was a beautiful creature.
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ybonesy, gosh that spider was as big as your entire palm?! I just told Liz that and she said, “UGH!” and made a funny face, followed by, “See, that’s why we don’t live in the South!”
I’m glad you came back and added the Spider info from the Susan Seddon Boulet animal spirit cards. If I get a chance later, I’ll add the tidbits on spider from the Jamie Sams Medicine Card deck, too. Yes, Grandmother, weaver, connector, protector.
I can’t believe you saw a coyote right off your dirt road. That’s another animal we don’t see a lot of here, though wolves are more common. And lynx. Coyote is the Trickster, always coming in the back door when we least expect it. He helps us learn to laugh at ourselves and our imperfections.
I do remember seeing a few while driving through the West and Southwest. They kind of look like a scrawny wolf from a distance. Such different tails though.
Hey, by “cat” do you mean domestic cat or bobcat?
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Love the last line…….we are inside the eye of change. Made me shiver.
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Yeah, QM, the coyotes are kind of like scrawny wolves. This one almost seemed like a scrawny dog. Bless its heart; I hope it’s able to find food. Our field has pheasants and we get a lot of wild ducks in the pond, so hopefully it’s finding meals.
They are such survivors. I was worried this particular one had gotten the (domestic) cat that’s been hanging out, but fortunately Jim saw the cat later, after we’d seen the coyote. But boy, that cat had better be careful. I wish the neighbors would keep it indoors more often. Lots of people lose their cats and small dogs to even a single coyote, and then a pack can bring down a large dog or a sheep, goat, etc.
BTW, we gave two turkeys last year to one of our friends; they were going to butcher the turkeys for Thanksgiving. The turkeys were still juveniles but bigger than chickens. My friend clipped their wings since she was going to butcher them in just a matter of weeks, and guess what happened? The turkeys couldn’t fly up into the trees at dusk, and they got eaten by a coyote.
Hey, jo, thanks for stopping in. I do think we’re in the midst of incredible change. That’s why everything is so painful right now.
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Fantastic pictures, Ybonesy! The lizard is amazing, and the last with the ground mist is stunning.
This is my favorite time of year, too. I love how you put it… we are inside the eye of change.
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Thanks, Robin. Jim held that lizard for some time—I got a bunch of shots of it—and at one point, it seemed to get hypnotized. In fact, in that top shot with the eye, notice that Jim’s hand is open. The lizard at that point seemed completely comfortable—no struggling to get away. It just stayed there with its eye open.
Oh, QM, I should clarify: the Orb spider was about the size of the palm part of the hand without the fingers. You know what I mean? Not the entire opened hand—just the palm part.
But man, look at the size of its legs. So long! Maybe it could have stretched out the entire length of the hand. Before you know it, I will have it being the size of a person’s face. 8)
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ybonesy, yep, the palm part of the hand. Still, it’s HUGE. You know what else I noticed — the claws on that lizard (top photo). Frogs and turtles have claws kind of like that. And dinosaurs, too. What do they do with those claws?
Sad about the coyotes eating the turkeys (#15). Can’t believe that. Well, I guess it’s not surprising. Coyotes and wolves do eat meat. You always hear about those rancher wars in the West, where some ranchers want to get rid of all the coyotes and wolves because they eat their cattle, and others want to preserve them. There’s controversy here as well along different lines. We have a Wolf Center up in Ely.
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Oh, yeah, QM, those claws are cool. I guess they use them for climbing. And digging. I’ll look into it (after cooking dinner).
I wanted to tell you that Jim came out of his cleaning “project” (yes, he’s at it, even on a Sun!) with another Orb spider. Not as big as the other one, and a little more yellow than white. This one, Jim said, was a monkey-faced Orb spider. Maybe I’ll post a photo on my Flickr account and add a link to Comments. It was really cool.
And, I let out the Black Widow pretty far away from the house, in the field. She didn’t want to leave the tub, had created a sort of cobweb in there, so I just left the tub with the lid off. Hope she heads out and doesn’t decide to stay there.
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What lizards do with claws I think it how they run up and down walls or just stay real still on there.
This guy with the iridescent belly – looking like a dinosaur in macro- – He appears to be wearing a turquoise necklace!
Question, for Jim, possibly – Just at dawn yesterday I found a snake in the driveway. She is about 3 feet long, silver-bellied, sand-colored with beautiful ‘Navajo’ designs. Dead, just. It was still almost warm, pliable. Not flattened anywhere, I don’t think it was run over, I’m sure it was killed by something. First I thought, Coyote – but now, viewing the stab wounds in daylight, it might seem to be the work of Roadrunner.
Very sad and strange, carrying a slender dead snake by the tiny tail up the driveway as the sun rises.
Who killed the snake?
What does this mean anyway?
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lil, Jim says that roadrunners will get snakes at times, although usually not that big. I asked him if he thought maybe you’d just scared off whatever it was that killed the snake…”I don’t know what to think,” was his reply.
The guy who lived here in our place told us the story of some neighbors who killed a dusty-colored snake, big, on the road just in front of this place. They threw the snake in his field to show him that they’d done the good deed of killing a rattler. “That’s not a rattler, you idiots,” he told them, “that was a bullsnake.” Even telling us the story, he was visibly upset that the neighbors had been so misinformed as to think that rattlers could be found in this area. (Their habitat, as you know, is further west of here.)
Anyhow, it sounds like your snake was killed by an animal predator, given the stab wounds. But as Jim just told me, snakes don’t have a lot of enemies.
Really sorry to hear about that, lil, whatever it was that killed the snake.
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Yeah, it is sad. I haven’t buried it, don’t really know what to do. We too think a roadrunner stabbed at it, they do eat little snakes, and it was too big a catch to deal – R also thought it might have been scared off, having mortally wounded the snake.
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Stunning photos, yb. I wish there was a distinct change in seasons here. They all seem to blend together.
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wonderful post, we spent the weekend in the woods, sometimes just sitting on a rock just listening
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The lizard makes me smile. I guess it’s because it looks like he’s smiling at me. What a lovely disposition that little guy seems to have.
As for the spiders? You are a braver soul than I. It’s been years since I’ve killed a spider, and I don’t have the courage to capture and release. Instead I’ve become very adept at bargaining with them – you stay where you are and I won’t bother you if you would be ever so kind to not bother me. Thank you very much.
And when that doesn’t work, then the boyfriend gets called in for capture and release duty.
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These are some truly awesome photos. I love, love, love the last one. Is that one taken on your land, ybonesy?
I laughed when you metioned taking hundreds of photos for just a few. I took over 2000 photos on my 16 day vacation, and have been culling them all along the trip. I’m hoping to come out with maybe 100 I like enough to keep.
Yeah, I love photography, but if someone tells you it’s not work, they are crazy!
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Hey , Bo, welcome back! Are you rested? The photos I’ve seen of your trip so far (on your blog) are fabulous! Wow, 2000 photos taken total?! Amazing.
Yes, the last photo is of the pampas grass out by the pond. I think I might have pointed out to you where that grass is and how when we first moved in we didn’t even know it was out there because of all the overgrown willows covering it up.
Thanks, Scot, Stevo, LB, for stopping in. LB, the really big spiders, like those Orb ones, kind of freak me out, but I can catch most any other spider and release it. Black Widows scare me just because I would hate to get bit, so usually I let Jim commune with them. 8)
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ybonesy, hope I get to see the Monkey-Faced Orb Spider Jim found (#19). I just find the way they look fascinating.
Bo, wow, over 2000 photos on a 16 day vacation, amazing! Yeah, one thing you learn as a photographer — you have to take a lot of shots, and bracket, to get that one great shot.
In a way, digital photography has made being a photographer so much easier and cheaper. Remember when we used to have to carefully calculate each shot and bracket 1 or 1 1/2 Stops before or after a shot because film and getting prints developed was SO expensive.
These days your initial investment is the camera. And a good, organized storage system and software. Well, and a good printer if you want to sell them. All of the printing and developing costs are gone. But you know what I sometimes miss?
Slowing down. You used to have to slow down so much to take those perfect 3 negatives of the same composition in order to keep it inexpensive. These days, digital has allowed for faster and faster turn around. I guess it all plays into the changes of a fast-paced world.
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[…] According to Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, the A. gemma is “sometimes called the ‘cat-face’, ‘monkey-face’ or ‘humpback’ spider since it has a pattern of dark markings and raised areas on its back that seem face-like. Females of this spider are generally rounded with angular ’shoulders’ and can reach a size exceeding a quarter. They make webs in undisturbed corners, often near porch lights, and are often found in late August and September around the eaves of houses… A. gemma hides in dark corners at the edge of the web during the day. She remains in contact with the web via a ‘trap-line’ thread that signals when insects have been ensnared.” Jim found this spider under a cropping of overgrown juniper bushes. It was a large spider but not nearly as large as the Orb Weaver pictured in recent post Reflections On My Love Of Fall. […]
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Wonderful essay, ybonsey. I vote we DO stretch fall out longer. I’m so sick of my summer clothes I’m considering a bonfire. Your photos are fabulous, too!
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bloomgal, great to hear from you. ybonesy’s on the road as I’m writing, heading home from Portland. A bonfire for the summer clothes — perfect. I saw a kid waiting for the bus a few days ago still wearing shorts. He had to be freezing. I guess there are those people who just don’t want to let go of Summer. 8)
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Ditto, bloomgal, I am sick of my summer clothes, too, not that I have that many. I’ve really gotten rid of so many clothes and then gotten cheap about buying any new ones. I’m sick of all my clothes, but at least the cold-weather stuff hasn’t been trotted all over town for the past several months.
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I cannot believe I am reading these words! Tired of your summer clothes!!! Those very clothes I wore, even when I was cold, for maybe 10 weeks – and I do believe I am being optimistic in that assessment.
Though I suppose if I can’t have a decent amount of summery days, I would be satisfied to stretch fall instead – say to about mid-February. Then one dumping of snow, and winter can be all over by the first of April, so I can see some Spring. Last year I seem to have blinked and missed it. 🙂
I know it isn’t even November, but I am already weary of furnaces, sweaters, long underwear, closed windows, and rainy, cloudy skies. And that word I heard continually just a half dozen months ago — snow — is back in the forecast.
Okay, I get everyone (well, not REALLY really) being tired of summer, but please, please, please, could I at least have a little autumn before old man winter comes and squats on my house.
Oh, never mind. Maybe I can talk Mr. Bo into moving somewhere where we don’t have 7 months of winter every year. Somewhere warmer than 20 below for 6 weeks.
Hey. that rant made me feel much better!!! Anyone want to come over to make slush-snowmen tomorrow and have some hot chocolate. i even have rakes so we can rake up these slushy leaves before they freeze. 🙂 Thanks a lot!
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I love that you observe spiders and gently place them elsewhere. The lizard’s colors are outstanding – what a pretty boy. This kindness toward nature is refreshing to see and read. Lovely photos.
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Bo, we know how you feel here in Minnesota (#33). Liz and I were just having coffee and chatting, looked out the window, and it’s actually SNOWING here today. Really coming down, windy and kind of blizzardy. I can’t believe it’s snowing!
Of course, the first snow never sticks. But as I’m looking out at the white stuff flying, I find I’m not quite ready for winter!
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