Category: quota photo

Near and Far

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A couple of gold and black images from the last few days. As I was editing the spider, I was struck by the similarity in colour palette with a moon shot I got earlier in the week.

One was 3.84cm from the lens, the other 384,000km.

Otherwise: same.

The spider is one of the Golden Orb Spiders (Family Nephilidae). This one, measuring almost 100mm from one tip of leg to the other, with a body size of just over 25mm would be a female. You rarely see the males because they’re only about 5mm long. Well, it has been chilly lately, to be fair.

Unusually, however, was this one being tucked in the corner of the wall near the braai. . We usually see them on huge, strong webs in the back of the garden. I’ve never seen one out of the safety of its web before, and I’m not sure what has prompted this behaviour.

You should be aware that these spiders – though big and a bit scary looking (mainly thanks to the face of the tortured demon trying to escape from within its back) – are completely harmless.

The other photo? And (almost) full moon rising in behind a local Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla) tree taken from the front of the house on Tuesday evening.

You should also be aware that the moon and the tree are also both harmless.

Never forget the seahorse…

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I was scrolling through some old photos on my phone this afternoon, when I came across this…

It’s actually a chicken nugget from a buffet at a birthday party at a restaurant in Kalk Bay, back in April 2022.

But it really does look like a seahorse. Or a knight from a chess set that has crispy, deep-fried pieces.

It was apparently considered remarkable enough at the time to record for posterity. (Alcohol may have been involved.)

And apparently still remarkable enough to make it into a blog post 3 years later. And I’m completely sober at the moment.

Suddenly, Eurasian Chaffinch

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Yep. Exactly what the title says.

I was taking photos of horses in Hout Bay this afternoon when I spotted this little guy in the pine tree above me.

These birds are actually invasives in Cape Town, one of several species introduced by Cecil John Rhodes in his attempts to anglicise South Africa.

Interestingly, while many of his efforts died out very quickly and some are near ubiquitous today, the Chaffinch falls somewhere in the middle, and 130 years after its introduction, is still only found in Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs.

Like Hout Bay.