Crabs, Cowboys and Caterpillars

It has been a hectic week, hence no blog last week.  It was the Arts Festival at Cedar Key last weekend, so much talent! It was amazing, unfortunately most of the artists had signs asking you not to take photo's, which is a shame as it means I cannot share some of the beautiful works of art with you all.  However I do understand the reasoning.  There was quite a lot of work gone into all the pieces on show and obviously it was all for sale, and to have people take photos would have been akin to allowing people to steal it all. One particular lady was very happy as she had sold all but a few pieces by the time we got to her stall on Saturday afternoon, and quite understandably too, beautiful pieces of art made from metal and coloured glass showing such scenes as flamingoes and palm trees against tropical seas and skies. Whilst we were there we visited the beach area and imagine my delight when we spotted two horseshoe crabs.  I am not sure they appreciated me taking photo's as they were rather busy at the time!  It is a fascinating fact that these creatures have remained virtually unchanged for 450 million years - that's 200 million years before dinosaurs existed!  Horseshoe crabs have baby blue coloured blood due to the fact that it is copper based as opposed to ours, which is iron based.

As you can see, the female, fawn coloured one, is much larger than the smaller male, which is grey.

We spent a pleasant hour or so over lunch looking out over the Gulf of Mexico, watching for the occasional black fin telling us there were dolphin.  Unfortunately try as I might I was never lucky enough to get a shot of one.

 Looking out over the Gulf of Mexico

 Looking back at the town of Cedar Key 

Trying, unsuccessfully, to get a shot of black fins playing in the water!

 I mentioned butterflies the other week, but was unable to get a picture of one, imagine my delight when this lovely creature landed near me on our visit to the garden centre.  Unfortunately the picture doesn't adequately show the size as it was quite large.  Definitely bigger than anything we are used to in the UK.

Someone had told me of the beautiful flowers on the bottle brush bush, but I was quite unprepared for the sight when we found one on one of our trips to Cedar Key.  The flowers truly are the most stunning red.

I was taken to my first Rodeo, which I really enjoyed, and not just because of the cowboys! I have always liked watching true horsemanship that has evolved from working with horses, more than 'sport' horsemanship.  And before any of you that know me, and know I like dressage, argue that dressage is 'sport' horsemanship should look up it's origins and how it was originally used to train horses for war.  I really enjoy watching the relationship between horse and human and how they work together.  I love watching Spanish equitation classes and anyone that hasn't seen Spanish equitation I suggest looking it up on Youtube, it is breathtaking and for me what riding is all about - the relationship of horse and rider.  At the Rodeo, watching the horse help to rope a calf and hold it whilst the cowboy jumped off to tie its legs together and tip it on its side is truly amazing in my opinion, and before all those 'do gooders' start yelling about cruelty, they need to remember that 'out there' in the real world these skills have evolved through working cattle, and ask themselves how else is one supposed to cut out and administer medicine etc, to a sick calf in the middle of nowhere.  Having said that I found the barrel racing really exciting, and found myself cheering and clapping madly along with everyone else, which for anyone that knows me is probably a bit of a surprise, considering my usual British reserve!  One of the other things that I really liked at the Rodeo was the fact that all serving and ex serving members of the forces were recognised and thanked.  We were also asked to stand and pay tribute to the Stars and Stripes when it was brought in and the National Anthem was sung.  I find it quite sad at how we in the UK seem to be ashamed to be seen to be patriotic.  I for one am proud to be British and would love to see pride in the country of our birth make a return.  If one looks at history and what we have contributed and still contribute we have a lot to be proud of.

With the Spring and warmer days we have been inundated with caterpillars and not the pretty kind either but the kind with stinging hairs :-(  Last week you couldn't step outside with coming across these things, the caterpillar of the Tussock moth.  I tried to sit outside for a while, but after glancing across at the other chair and seeing at least four of the damn things, every blade of grass that touched my leg, or tiny bug that landed on my arm had me jumping in case it was one of these, I finally gave up and came inside after five minutes of jumping up and down to check what had just touched me!

On my look out for the Tussock moth caterpillar on the tree and their cocoons I did spot this guy, very well camouflaged.

I think, looking online it's an Underwing moth caterpillar, but don't hold me to that.  The white fluffy ball next to him is the cocoon of one of the Tussock moth caterpillars that had me jumping around the garden.