Spiders!

I know that all of God's creatures are here for a reason (though I have yet to find a use for mosquitoes, other than spreading disease.) But nevertheless, I know that snakes usually eat mice and rodents or insects, flies break down dead tissue, worms enrich soil . . . I know all that. But there are some of God's creatures that I just don't like. Spiders would be one kind.

But I am fascinated by Spider webs. When the kids were young, we had Charlotte, the garden spider. A big, colorful spider, she wove the most intricate and interesting webs in our garden. Every day we would go outside to look at them.

In New Mexico, I don't recall ever seeing spiders like the orb spiders we have in Kansas. You know the ones that build their large webs at night, catch moths and spiders, and then take down their web before morning, right? The first time I ran into an orb spider was one night in our first house. I went outside to do something, and then next thing I knew I had screamed the most blood-curdling yell and was dancing the "spider jig" as I tried to get the web out of my hair!

When we moved to our current house 27 years ago, I was much wiser about those stupid webs and am very careful when I go out at night this time of year. Sometimes, I am lucky enough to see the orb spiders weaving their webs around one of the outside lights. And one night earlier this week, one was still out when I had my camera handy. Although the web doesn't show up as nicely as I had hoped, the spider surely does. S/he is a big one! I am glad I saw it before it ended up in my hair!