Spider webs and switchgrass

I've been admiring the spider webs these last few early mornings at the marsh, marveling at their number and complexity. It's best to do this early, before the sun burns off moisture that has condensed during the night to outline every detail.

There must be hundreds of thousands of these webs (and arachnidian weavers)executed to varying designs in the acres that make up the marsh. And it's humbling to think of their numbers in comparison to our own and their skill --- marvelous creations woven adroitly without college degrees in engineering or design by critters who work at best for minimum wage.

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Switchgrass weaves its seed-head webs of similar grace and complexity so that they are almost always difficult to photograph and often difficult to see. Not a prefect photo by any means, but I think it's possible to see switchgrass gone to seed here, intermingled with bolder and more obivious indiangrass plumes.

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A merry band of pelicans alighted Tuesday afternoon to join the egrets, cormorants and other evening roosters --- feeding enthusiastically on whatever the east pond has to offer. I saw them early Wednesday, then off they went after a night at the Pin Oak motel.

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I have always tried to be patient with pokey older drivers, taking into consideration the possibility that by grace and good luck I might become one of them. Well, it's happened.

It occurred to me, driving in from the marsh at 8 with a 9 o'clock meeting in the offing, that 45 mph. is about my speed. Gives you a little leeway to look around and, after all, what's your hurry? (This does not apply on the Interstate or routine trips down 34 to Ottumwa, however).

When the cars started to line up behind me on a foggy morning, I picked up speed to lessen frustration and felt downright righteous for doing so.