The itsy-bitsy spider...

...ate the tiny green sweat bee.  The End.

How could I pass up a predation shot for today's blip?  And one that dropped into my lap frame just when I was getting really desperate for a blip!  I had scoured the goldenrod and come up with nothing new.  I was resigned to blipping a very odd looking tiny cricket or a super-duper close up of a wooly-bear's wooly stuff ... and then I spotted a tiny sweat bee with two long legs sticking out from under it.  I knew immediately that the bee had fallen prey to a crab spider but wasn't sure how cooperative the spider would be.  Turns out that she was not going to give up her meal under any circumstances, even when a giant humanoid finger gently nudged her meal out into the open, with her attached.  I am always thrilled when I can actually spot one of these minuscule spiders - the are ridiculously small.  The do love to hang out on the phlox, but even knowing that, it's hard to spot them.  This one is a female - they are the only ones who have the ability to change their color to blend in with whatever they are sitting on (although the color change takes some time).  You can see that's she's a lovely pale pinkish color, matching the phlox.

I worked on the garden patch today - killing some grass that still remained and covered 300 square feet with ground cloth.  Ran out of the cloth, so had to make a trip into town to pick up another roll which I'll use to finish up tomorrow.  Saturday the dirt will be delivered and it will go right down on top of the cloth.  Hopefully, this will keep even the most determined weed from coming through.

It's time to start dinner so I'm signing off for now.

Cheers,
Debbi