Are these cicadas or giant beetles? I think beetles. But this is the year for cicadas, so I am not 100% sure... Whatever they are, they were on a tree on the other side of our fence. Thank goodness they weren't in the yard, or Mason would have been all over that action. He loves bugs. He waves and sayd hi to bumblebees (we tell him not to touch...).
This spider was sitting on a HUGE spun web outside the kitchen window this morning. An hour after I took the picture, she was gone. The web was gone, too! Some googling told me that she probably ate her web. How efficient and kind to the environment! No carbon footprint for her!
(Sorry about the bad focus! Seems to be on the web and not the creepy crawley!)
We went to Bele Chere on Friday. (It's the biggest free music festival in the Southeast.) Will carried Mason in the Bjorn, which he hadn't been in in many moons. He doesn't exceed the weight limits yet! He was fine with it until toward the end, when he got very mommy-needy. (Mason, not Will.)
It was a fun time. My uncle Stu and cousin Jessica met us there. They came with my aunt Sylvia, who was singing at the Grove Park Inn for the owner's birthday! I was so happy to see them here in Asheville! And then they came over to our house on Saturday. Bonus!
Back to Bele Chere! We saw a couple of different kinds of music acts, a steel drum band and a woman who was very bluesey. Mason loved them both. He was rocking his little head and swinging his arms about. He's such a little dancer!
Mason and I spent some time at the NC Arboretum this morning. He wanted to "smell" (I'm pretty sure he breathes out when he smells...) the flowers and climb into the trees.
I took a lot of photos of pretty flowers. I wish I could identify them. Here's the entire set of flower pictures. Here's a sampling...
We went to Asheville's Ribfest this afternoon. We'd attended St. Pete's three years in a row, so my expectations were high. In Florida, there were around ten to fifteen award winning rib vendors. And lines at least 20 deep at every vendor. I was disappointed today to see only four rib vendors, and two with awards. But the ribs were great, and the lack of a crowd made the afternoon very manageable. It was fun. We ate, Mason danced with us to live music, we went into a petting zoo (no pics of that part, the camera died!) and then on the way out Mason played in a jewelery vendor's bubbles. So it was different than I expected but very very fun.
Here are the neat non-Mason photos I took today when we were celebrating our independence from the British. Heh.
What's more American that Apple bread pudding?
Buncombe County Courthouse (1928) and Asheville City Hall (1928)
Skyscraper?!?
Flags, "skyscraper" reflecting in the building
We had a leisurely morning at the Black Mountain Arts Festival. We bought some fun things, talked to chair makers, potters and bag makers. We came home to this in our front yard!
A pipe under the road burst this morning. The water company was out here pretty quickly, and our water was off and back on before we could miss it. And now there's a cool tractor-type construction vehicle in our yard for Mason to stare at!
We spent this afternoon at Lake Powhatan. It's really close to the house, which makes it so easy! Mason loved the water, which we didn't expect. We didn't have a swimmy diaper or bathing suit. We thought he'd sit on the towel or try to get near the ducks. Nope! We went through three soaked Pampers, and had a naked baby!
Guess what was in our garage on Sunday? And guess what jumped down our back door today? And guess what my neighbor saw in his dog-poo "toilet" that he dug? If you guessed three different ginormous spiders, you would be correct.
Garage spider is below. Her cephalothorax and abdomen (I looked that up, but I was close) combined were bigger than a quarter. She got to live because I was afraid to kill her. My back door spider today was smaller, furry and black. I killed it. My neighbor's poo spider was a Black Widow! Lovely.
I can't believe I have traded disgusting Palmetto bugs for scary spiders. Spiders make me SCREAM! I am so afraid of spiders. Oh, EEK!
We took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway this morning. We didn't drive far, about 15 miles out and back. There are so many scenic stops along the way, and each one was higher than the next! There were a lot of tunnels dug into the mountain. Mason craned his neck to see each one as Will announced them. Here are some pictures!
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