Today's Digital Image Archive

Select "medium" to view a larger image. Full size images are available on request. The links to them are no longer functional; there was too much unauthorized copying.

May 1999
31		medium	Left alone to guard the car at the supermarket.
30		medium	It's been an unusually good spring for spiders.
29		medium	This fellow was trapped in a web in a corner on the deck.  He looked like a late 19th-century glider made of black lace and red velvet.
28		medium	The pond weed began blooming this week. Hydrilla?  The blossoms are solitary, on a thin stalk that puts them about 1/2 above the water.  They're about the diameter of a pencil.
27		medium	These glossy black beetles are about 1-1/4" long and eat their way through the logs in the woodpile. Without better lights, I couldn't get a good photo of the dark surfaces, but I was amazed to see that they're infested with mites. You can see a cluster of large ones in the middle left and masses of smaller ones. Pretty gross, isn't it, Katy?
26		medium	This guy is too cool for only one photo.  Click on these, too.
25		medium	Another spider.  This little guy is a stalker rather than a web builder.  He's very agile and can jump six inches or more.  Very cocky demeanor; nearly fearless, and a face that reminds me of a cocker spaniel (with a half-dozen eyes).  Very odd large mouth parts, too.
24		medium	I have no idea what this is.  It crawled up the curtains in the office one day and disappeared immediately after I shot this picture.
23		medium	Something ate a chunk from the this magnolia leaf.  A moth caterpillar?
22		medium	A young magnolia leaf, with shadows from the early morning sun.
21		medium	A new wisteria shoot.  The flash was too hot, but the silvery effect is interesting.
20		medium	A "granddaddy longlegs" spider who just finished molting.  The old skin is shriveled at the lower left.
19		medium	The wired rabbit on JP's doorstep.
18		medium	A spittlebug on one of the rhododendrons.  They're soft-bodied bugs that protect themselves with masses of foam.  (They really are bugs - hempitera - soft-bodied insects that suck juices from plants.)
17		medium	A flower from the big poplar tree in the back yard.
16		medium	This fellow built a web above the ferns at the end of the pond.   He/she is less than 1/2" long.
15		medium	A centipede cruising down the walkway.
14		medium	New fern frond unwrapping.
13		medium	It's a hand-held closeup shot at 1/30 sec and about 3/4" from the flower after a bumblebee had just departed.  I know it's out of focus, but the effect is interesting.
12		medium	Scooter the dog contemplates human behavior, art, and architecture at Tommy's place in the Georgia mountains.
11		medium	These pods appear at the base of the heleboris plants every spring.  I don't think the plant propagates by seeds.  Any ideas?
10		medium	Spot, the cat. (not mine)
9		medium	This spider lurks in the very bottom of a rhododendron flower and attacks insects that visit the flower for nectar.  Note the multiple pairs of eyes in this closeup.
8		medium	A spider that wandered into the garden pond.  Surface tension makes the water in the pond an entirely different thing for a small critter than for us.
7		medium	Wild strawberry emerging.  It's about the size of a pencil eraser and has approximately the same flavor.
6		medium	A wild strawberry blossom in the back yard.
5		medium	A rhododendron wet from last night's rain.
4		medium	Chlorox bottles left over from a battle with mildew on the deck.
3		medium	A glass of lemonade made using the violet blossom syrup we made earlier this spring.  Violets were very popular during the 19th century as a candied confection and as a springtime source of vitamin C.  The blossoms and the greens are good in salads. The jasmine climbing the wall is just beginning to bloom.
2		medium	My friend Nell from Palo Alto made this tiny Frisbee dog for me.
1		medium	The tip of a maple leaf blown down yesterday by the wind.

All images copyright 1999 by D. W. Abrams.  Unauthorized duplication or use is prohibited.