Tennessee Drive-In

There is still at least one drive-in movie theater in the world!

Tennessee Bee

Delay in posting due to overlong (but good) business trip to Michigan. I am SO glad to be home...I missed my cats and insects.






Back to some Lake Watauga photos again...I am still going through them all. Here, A Bee. Love those giant leg-pod things. Bee experts everywhere are cringing at my lack of knowedgeable bee vocabulary; however, that lack does not negate my love of and fascination by them.

Tennessee Thistles

I'm still not done with all of my Lake Watauga photos. These are from the morning when I think I heard a bear! In fact, when I was almost eaten by one!!

Back to Watauga: Spider and Wasp

This shot was completely accidental; the wasp suddenly came charging at the spider while I was taking photos.

Back to Watauga: Leaf

Back to Watauga: Heron

Back to Watauga: Spiny Spider

My guess was that this is some kind of orbweaver. I found a similar, if not same, spider on What's That Bug that is identified as a possible Micrathena gracilis, or Spined Micrathena, which is in the orbweaver family.


There were many of them around, whatever they are.

Back to Watauga: On the Lake, Part IV: Boat Wake

Back to Watauga: On the Lake, Part III: Hugh Dives

Back at Watauga: On the Lake, II: Save Me!

Back to Watauga: On the Lake, I: Boy and Dogs

Dead Insects of Lake Watauga, Part III: Only Not All Dead and Not All Insects

Not all dead; some just interesting natural items. The butterfly we've seen before; the beetle will be covered in a later post. The acorn was just there and very pretty.


The root I found (already detached from its plant or tree) on the Appalachian Trail. I forget where I found the nuts, and I don't know what kind of nut they are.


No idea what tree or plant this is from, but I love it. It's beautiful! I brought home all the items in this post, except the beetle, who was not dead. Yet. But possibly is now.

The Bee from the Spider's Web: Lake Watauga Dead Insects, Part II

Or, Likely Suspects, Anyway

I saw this bee being wrapped up by a spider in its web on the porch of the house we were staying in at Lake Watauga. By the time I went inside for the camera and came back, the bee had freed itself from the web and fallen to the floor below. It was dazed and confused, probably injected full of spider toxin. You can see a bit of the web on his back end in this photo.


After a while I moved him to a place on the railing where the screen had been torn and was quite open. Later he was gone. Did he live or die?

The Dead Insects of Lake Watauga, Part I

We begin with the butterfly: a gorgeous, intact specimen lying on the floor of the screened-in porch outside our bedroom door.

At the Cabin at Lake Watauga

So last week when Hugh and I left at 3:30 in the morning to go catch a plane, we were on our way to Lake Watauga in northeastern Tennessee. It was a most utterly beautiful place! This is the view from the house we stayed in, just two doors down from the house of the friends who were hosting the reunion of Hugh and his high school buds.