A Percussionist's Notebook

 We have a new spider. This time she is in the living room window. She is the same type of spider as our original Muffet. I think I'll name her 'Charlotte'. We have been under an air quality alert for nearly a month because of the smoke from all of the forest fires. This means we can't open the windows at night when the temperature drops. Patti's voice has been affected so badly that she speaks at a pppp  dynamic by the end of each day. Even changing the filter in the house 2 times a month. Unfortunately it produces some dramatic sunsets, and during the day it looks like more like a bad film noir movie set in LA.   

Sadly she just curled and died. One day she was on her web and the next she was on the window sill. She got rid of a massive amount of flying nasties in her life time, but she also provided a lot of education for us. Filling the coffee pot, washing dishes, or just sitting in the kitchen we would always look for her in the different areas of her web.  I think I'll put an ad on our 'Neighborhood' app. Position open: Fly exterminator provide your own web must not bite.

  We have been visited by deer quite a bit lately. This beautiful guy is in full velvet. Yesterday morning we had two walking up our street, one of which stopped in our front yard for a quick snack on our hedge. A small price to pay for a glimpse of them.  Maybe this one felt a little a little guilty so he did a little tree trimming for us pro bono. He posed for this great profile shot in his photo op but unfortunately Muffet's web created a lot of glare through the kitchen window. And yes, Muffet is alive and well, keeping us safe from the little flying nasties.