Waiting for the front

A cold front was promised. It is 3 days past the first day of fall, but we have continued with the warmth of summer. Still, we've been promised a front. And we've been promised three days of rain.

We weren't up early, but decided to take a walk ahead of whatever weather shows up. It is harder to walk these days. We miss the pups. And, while we need to walk, we are less likely to struggle out of bed early to walk alone.

Walkers with dogs, runners (alone and with baby carriages), bikers on three-wheelers! We've been missing a good deal of activity in the neighborhood. These were unfamiliar faces moving up and down the route to the park.

We moved slowly - drinking our morning coffee.

I set my mug on the concrete railing of the small bridge over the creek. "I'm going to see if there is any evidence of leatherflowers," I explained to DH. He wandered off to the end of the street, arriving back in time to loan me his cellphone.* I was able to get a decent photo of the crazy, leggy, yes - spidery leatherflower seeds. But I struggled with the large spiderweb and spider also gracing the edge of the woods. The stationary spider kept moving in and out of focus as the web moved back and forth in the light breeze.

On the way home we spied another spider - from about 20 feet away. These were good sized creatures (if these old eyes can see one from 20 feet), keeping the insect population under control and growing fat from their success.**

We've missed the late summer blooms, but there still may be more. I'll keep an eye on these for seed gathering in a few weeks.

A true bug was hiding among the leatherflower seeds. He moved quickly so this was the only photo I was able to get.

While clearly an orb weaver, this spider moved quickly to rebuild a part of the web and so we only got a good view of the  dorsal view.

The second spider looked almost furry. It's web was almost perfect with tiny white dots decorating at seemingly regular intervals. I couldn't tell if it was an intentional part of the construction or a scattering of something else.

One final runner headed down the hill as we headed home. Her brown braid bounced back and forth as she ran along.

We also passed the now-parked baby carriage. It signaled these folks (fit father with smiling baby girl) are new neighbors as the carriage graced the sidewalk at the house of one of our older neighbors we have not seen for a while. She once worked with DH and retired more than 20 years ago. She once worked elections. She also sat on her porch, catching a ride to church on Sundays.

We had noticed the signs of change - dramatic tree/hedge trimming remains followed by the detritus of carpenters and painters.

There will be dramatic hedge trimming at our place soon too. But our work will not signal a move. Our landscaping is necessary. We noticed the hedge has grown over half of the sidewalk, allowing single file passage only. <sigh> A long afternoon is ahead of us. But I have the required tools. Thanks to previous adventures with (the demon) forsythia I own two pairs of "loppers" and a few clippers.

Breakfast first.

PS While eating breakfast we could hear thunder close-by. Then as we sat comfortably in the living room safe from the storm, the rain came. No hedge trimming now.

NOTES:

*I've probably mentioned it before - DH's phone takes better photos than mine. I was struggling to capture some large spiders.

**Each spider was "working on" a victim. And I was not bothered by mosquitoes as I attempted photo after photo.