Seasonal complaint

Every year there's a sudden drop off of visible biodiversity in the North, as cold weather arrives and many of the insects disappear. This year was especially hard on me, as I spent one of the last weeks of the summer in Florida, where insects and spiders and large wading birds and giant reptiles are loose everywhere, all the time as far as I know. Then I came back to Boston on a change of weather day--everyone in Boston thought it was pretty cold compared to the day before, but it was like a 30 degree drop for me. I looked around my yard and it looked like I'd been away for months: the grass was brown, all the sunflowers had come and gone, the perennials and wildflowers had all gone to seed.

I just posted this on tumblr, with a mopey caption:

It's terribly blurry, but the wing veins are nice and visible, in case any entomologists want to identify it. I know it's a carrion fly but beyond that who knows?

Seasonal appreciation

One of the nice things about autumn is the blooming of asters. This one is probably blue wood aster Symphyotrichum cordifolium. These look like rangy weeds all summer long, then burst out in lovely unkempt daisylike composite flowers.

3:00 snapshot #1757: Sunday

Sunday I joined friends I rarely see to celebrate Christian's entry into 40s-hood.

3:00 snapshot #1758: Monday

Selfie with sleeping tapir.

3:00 snapshot #1759: Tuesday

The maples begin to succumb to the season.