This spider has lost weight! All the spinning seems to be directed towards making a place for her eggs to hatch. It's like a cotton pad stuck to the basil stem.

Green lynx spiders jump on their prey, including "crop pests" like bollworms and some types of moths, rather than spinning webs to snare them. Unfortunately, they also like to dine on bees! So this family will need to be relocated to the front yard, where they can live in the lantana or Asian jasmine instead of my bee-bait plants.

Obviously it's a spider (I'm math-challenged, but I was able to count eight legs). Anybody recognize it?

What could it be hoping to catch for breakfast? The ladybugs hatched months ago and fanned out across the yard, and there are no aphids. I just hope it's not messin' with my bees!

If anybody can identify it, let me know. Just curious--I like to know the names of all the denizens of my garden, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral!

Forbes.com ran a story the other day about the least (and most) expensive US cities for home ownership. San Antonio was ranked the fourth least-expensive city on their list. No surprise here. Gasoline, food, and utilities cost less than in many other large cities. San Antonio's warm climate and continuing economic growth continue to make it an attractive city for retirees as well as relocating workers.

Behind (or beside) the Alamo

In the San Antonio metro area, real estate did not appreciate nearly as much as in other places, so it has not depreciated as much either, although it is definitely a buyer's market now. Only 1,710 existing single-family homes sold in San Antonio in August, down 26 percent from 2,317 homes in August of last year. Home sales are down 19%, while average prices have increased only 1% in total compared to the January-August 2007 period. The average days on market have also lengthened from 68 to 83 compared to last August.

San Antonio's median home price is still $153,300, the same as it was in August of 2007, but foreclosures totaled 1,015--up 43% from the same time last year.

There is some good news for investors: rental rates are also going up in response to demand from people unable to buy a home. But San Antonio still placed sixth on another Forbes.com list, that of the least expensive cities for renters. The median rent was shown as $707. Of course, this figure includes studio apartments all the way up to 5-bedroom homes.

For a multi-family property, I'd recommend looking for a rental rate of at least $550/unit for a 1-bedroom. I'd advise at least $950/month for a single-family home. This doesn't refer to cash flow as much as getting to a certain income threshold for prospective tenants.

This Gulf Fritillary was snoozing on the buddleia this morning, waiting for the rays of the sun to hit him and warm him up. When that happens, the white spots on the wings turn out to be silver. Butterflies and hummingbirds love the nectar from buddleias, also known as butterfly bush. But the Gulf Fritillary lays its eggs on passionflower vine. Ours has been decimated, but that's okay--it's there to provide caterpillar food.

I went back outside this afternoon and took some more photos to make a little Gulf Fritillary show.

I went back to see the restored Sunken Gardens at Brackenridge Park last weekend. There were a couple of musicians playing New Age music in the stone pagoda, which was actually rather nice. Although it was about 85 degrees, as usual in September, the walkways were shaded by the trees. They were not covered in blooms as they were on my first visit, but there were a lot of other flowers and greenery to admire.

A moth whose wings glittered with gold iridescence in the sunshine

The Sunken Gardens, located next to Brackenridge Park and the Zoo, is one of my favorite places in San Antonio. They are free to visit, although donations for their continued restoration and upkeep would be welcome.

Enjoy the show!

I'm back! I've spent the last couple of weeks visiting my husband's friends in Turin. We had a wonderful time, and I learned things this trip that I hadn't even noticed on my two previous visits, as well as discovering some great Italian wines.

First, Italians have great teeth: white and even and straight. I only saw one old boy who didn't have good teeth--and he had ONE tooth, quite impressive. We asked for directions and I could not keep my eyes off that tooth. Don't move to Italy if you want to make a killing in orthodontia.

View of a church in Pocapaglia

The other thing I discovered is that Italians love to discuss things. Especially food. The next days' meals were discussed in detail, as were politics, the other favorite topic. It was very relaxing to talk about everything instead of rushing around doing things and working. Italians don't seem to talk about work much. Some of the discussions seemed to get very heated (I could follow them pretty well because of my rusty Spanish, but I don't know enough Italian--yet--to participate), but there were no hurt feelings at the conclusion of the debates. People are passionate about their opinions, but they don't hold it against others if their opinions differ and can't be changed.

Posing in front of a castle in the Alba region

These are generalizations, of course, and may not apply to Italians in other regions. All our friends live in northern Italy near the Alps, and although I've been to Florence (my favorite), Rome, Siena, and Venice as well, I didn't know anyone there.

So it's nice to be back, but I've added the Piedmont area to my list of possible retirement places.

My ideal future retirement home

Ciao!