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| Three graceful webs |
It’s Spider Season in
Seattle! I understand that many
folks are not as thrilled about spider season as I am, but every year, I'm happy
to see it coming. For one thing,
it means that autumn is approaching, and for another thing, it means lovely
spiders. I am not sure when my
relationship with spiders began to warm, but I do recall, once when I was about
six, waking up screaming. My
parents came rushing into my dark bedroom to comfort me, and I told them that
there was a huge spider on my ceiling. They said this could not be, but turned
on the light to show me, and --- there she was! Staring down at me, smirking. Sad
now to say, I am sure that my father dispatched her quickly. The wonder was, how I knew she was there. It was a little family mystery. Another time, when I still a child, but
a much bigger one, as I was reading in my bedroom, I heard shrieking from the
living room. This time, I hurried
in to save my mother and found her leaping about, tearing off her clothes. She said that as she was vacuuming, a huge spider had
scuttled down his web from the ceiling and dropped down the back of her blouse.
We never found the poor spider, who must have run off in a fright, but I think
this may be when my attitude towards spiders began to turn. One of my happy memories is the walks
my friend Denise and I used to take every Thursday, around the Chico Sewer
Pond, keeping track of the birds who stopped by. Early in the autumn, we would marvel as clouds of gossamer
floated by with their cargo of spiderings bound for new homes away from their
mums.
Since ancient times,
spiders have been good luck, and killing one will surely bring misfortune of
some sort. For those who don’t
relish sharing their personal space with a spider, it is advised that the
little arachnid be gently carried outside and released. However, a spider in the house also means
far, far fewer mosquitoes, flies, and other noisome insects. So on many counts,
it is best to leave them be.
My friend Martha had
much better luck with her spider web picture, seen here. Or maybe she was just less of a
slugabed and got up before the dew had all evaporated.
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| This little fellow seems to be an amputee. |
4 comments:
Joanna..you are such a creative writer.
Enjoy reading your thoughts.
I am fascinated by the artistry or engineering skill of the spider.
Now if I can prove I'm not a robot in less than 5 tries I'll be happy!
Really great photo. Its tricking getting good photos of the webs. I like spider season too, except when I accidently walk through the webs...
Very pretty those shimmery webs. Too bad spiders aren't as pretty. I catch and release them to the great outdoors. Great photos!
I enjoyed your spider pictures! I used to be terrified of them, but now I mostly appreciate them--especially when they're outdoors. We had a web in front of the kitchen window that used to be blown down every night, but every morning that spider would get back up and spin a new web. You have to admire that persistence!
In Germany, they call the warm early autumn days "alt Weiber Sommer"--which many people think means "old wife summer" but really refers to the wispy bits of web that you mention. I think it's lovely!
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