The mini heatwave is over and I got back to business at Beechwood this morning. I cut down some Japanese knotweed around the pond, pausing to admire the nice healthy cattails:

And these Siamese cattails:

And then it all went horribly wrong:

This is water plantain growing at the edge of the pond:

I'm not familiar with these, but I've decided they're dewberries:

Perhaps swamp dewberries? Whatever they are, they're doing well this year.

If you've lost your phone, check under the big sign at Todmorden Mills:

Now, if you're squeamish about bugs at all, you're done reading right here. Have a nice day! The rest of you, come with me and check out the big gross creepy things I found today.

There were some Unnecessarily Long Spiders lurking in reeds beside the pond. They'd move around to hide from me (the way a squirrel moves around a tree trunk), then stretch out long and pretend to be reeds:

(I suspect Unnecessarily Long Spiders may not be the correct name here, but hey, my bug, my rules.)

I transported the knotweed stems I'd cut in an old sheet as usual. After dumping them on the reject pile I found I'd also been carrying this:

It's probably not called the Soda Cracker Spider.

The next insect wins in the size category, as well as Most Docile. Oh what the heck, I'll give it Best in Show. Here's a cicada that allowed me to uproot its plant and carry it over to the equipment box for better light and posing. (Yes, it was alive.)