Last night, restless and a little melancholy, I drove westward in search of the outdoors–the sky, the sun setting and hopefully something interesting to shoot in the foreground. My meandering led me to the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area, where I had been once to fish but never just to hike around. My walk led me through an area which was very like a prairie, full of some of my favorite plants: Black-eyed Susans, Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod, and thistles, among other sundry grasses and flowers. The most interesting thing I saw was a bee on a thistle which had obviously died and was fixed to the flower. It was only after I processed the pictures that saw that it is sitting on something bright yellow, which almost certainly is a Ridge-faced flower spider, which I had to look up to identify. That must have been quite a final battle for both. I am very tempted to go back for the thistle and see if it is still there to get some better shots. In the meantime, enjoy these.