Famous last words

This is the creature which fell out of my shoe this morning after I got back to the house with the paper, aware of a growing pain on the top of my right foot. Its body is only two or three millimeters wide, but the sore spot on my foot is about an inch wide, where the skin is red and feels clammy. The soreness reminds me of severe sunburn I had on the tops of my feet at the beach once, years ago, but the entire foot has an ache also. Initially I thought it was a spider, but now I think maybe not. Perhaps it got into my shoe from the compost heap, where I had been to dump lawn clippings Thursday evening. [Update, Sunday morning: I added the third photo, since I was still alive, and the insect is still dead. My foot seems to be recovering — less red, less achy, less itchy, and the very minor swelling has now gone.]

Crape myrtle


Crape myrtle, just planted, 27″ tall. We’ve wanted one of these for ages, but didn’t know where to put it. After we bought this one, we still didn’t know, as we don’t have many spots likely to give it the full days of sun. Maybe this’ll do.

Black snake down


This poor guy got thoroughly tangled in the plastic net we had put around the tomatoes. I was able to free him after about ten minutes of snipping, but he got in a shot at me before I could get another of him. We don’t know how long he was stuck, but think it had to be less than 24 hours. There were tight loops around him in lots of places, and I’m pretty sure I got them all cut off. Some were very constricting around his mid-section, and there may have been some damage to his skin there — or it might just have been ruffled scales. I was trying to see when he zapped me.