Last cross orbweaver of the year?

The zoo's carpenter found a cross orbweaver while he was taking apart some structure at Stone Zoo. He carefully collected it and brought it to me. "I know these garden spiders do good work eating other bugs." Indeed they do sir. I took it off his hands and found a tree with loose bark, so the spider could hide out while she regained her bearings. She looked as though she was going to produce young very soon.



She sat motionless enough that I was able to use my phone microlens to get a picture of her face.

3:00 snapshot #1455

3:00 snapshot #1456

My local packy is closed, hopefully not for serving underage customers AGAIN.

View from the Mass Ave bridge

My dad came to visit this Saturday. My intention was to bring him to the Arthur Fiedler statue down on the Esplanade (via car) but found that parking anywhere nearby was not gonna happen. I pulled over at the first legal spot on Beacon Street and it was at Mass Ave. I figured, why not? Dad likes great views, so we crossed the Charles and took some pics.

Oh, Hello!

New pup Gouda is with us now. He seems smaller than most of our previous fosters. He's being treated for a condition called pyoderma, which swells up his muzzle. His belly is swollen, probably a reaction to the dewormer. My brother suggested the nickname "BatManatee," to accurately reflect his weird appearance. Besides his piglike ears and color, he has those strangely calm blue eyes--very unpuppyish somehow.

He looks more like a puppy in this video than in the still pictures.