Who's your daddy?

I cant' even begin to explain to you how bizarre it is that I went out into the garden today hoping to find something creepy-crawly.  And when the first thing I spotted was this Daddy-longlegs (Harvestman) I was ecstatic.  Yep.  Excited to see something with 8 legs.  This is the same species that was at the root of my decades-long irrational fear of spiders; the genesis of my arachnophobia.  And now I'm crouched mere inches away from one, prodding it gently with a finger, hoping for a good shot.  This, incidentally, is a composite of two shots that have been stacked in an effort to get a better look at the face details.

So, if you didn't know it, harvestmen are not spiders, although they are in the arachnid family.  Unlike true spiders, the harvestman has only one body-part whereas spiders have two distinct parts.  Also, whereas spiders have 8 eyes, harvestmen only have two.  Based on size, I'd speculate that this one is a female,  although I'm not certain.  These arachnids are completely harmless to humans but are valuable predators in the garden as they eat a host of pests - and occasionally each other.  Hey, well, you know...it happens.

You've probably guessed that it was a freakishly warm day - temps in the mid-50's which made for a very nice walk for Hubs and I.  And some productive poking about in the garden, as I also found a boxelder bug hanging out near the back door.  

Today is my Mom's 82nd birthday, so Happy Birthday, Mom!!  We talked to she and Dad this morning and it sounded like they had a day of fun planned, which started with coffee and a chocolate donut.  Gotta love that.  I'll be headed out to AZ next month to see them, so we'll celebrate all of our birthdays when I'm there (Mom in Dec, me in Jan and Dad in Feb).  

Temps are taking a nosedive tomorrow, so I expect I'll be back to blipping birds.  Or maybe one last Christmas ornament before I finish packing them all away for another year.  

Thanks to Osuzanna for hosting TinyTuesday this week!

xo
Debbi

PS:  And now I see that this is also my 2,000th Blip, so YAY, ME!