Foggy this morning. My husband, son and I were all outside this morning, before the sun burned through, checking out all the vegetables and (in my case) admiring all the tiny water droplets that adorned the fernier greens.
There were also little patches of dew-laden webs scattered on the lawn and tucked against the fence or the edge of a garden.
I love things like this. Love to look closely at the dewdrops strung like jewels along the nearly invisible strands of web.
It's magical.
Anyway, in one such web I found its architect and builder - a little brown spider tucked toward the back of the web, out of the way, out of sight....
She didn't move, and didn't seem to mind when I knelt close and stuck my big ol' camera right in her front window. I called the kids over (Julia was outside, too, by this point) and showed them the spider who made this beautiful home for herself.
And Alex, my thoughtful little boy, got up and went into the garage. A moment later I heard a motorized humming sound and realized he had gone to get his bug vacuum - a recent birthday gift and, I believe, his favorite. He prowled around the yard a bit and finally announced "I got one!" He had caught an earwig, which is just fine by me, and brought it over to the web to feed to the spider. He dropped it onto the web and sure enough, Ms. Spider darted out and delivered the death bite to the hapless creature.
Alex and Julia crouched nearby and watched. I came over, too, and (humming the National Geographic Wildlife theme song, or whatever it is - "dun dun dun DA DUN, dun dun dun DA DUN, dun dun da DA da dun de dah dun BOOM BOOM") moved in for a few shots.
Alex was so proud - he brought breakfast to the spider.
On the way into the house, Alex told Julia "Guess what, Julia! We can hang the spider pictures on YOUR SIDE of the bedroom!"
And she replied "You MEAN IT??!!" with great joy.
And it occurred to me that maybe we're a slightly weird family.
What beautiful pictures!
My husband & I would fit right in in your family (or vice versa)...there are other spider-lovers out here!
Posted by: Barbara | June 29, 2008 at 03:01 PM
Your garden photos are stunning! And how thoughtful of Alex to feed the spider breakfast!
Posted by: Shannon | June 30, 2008 at 08:07 AM
What a neat kid! I love that his brain went straight to the "THIS is the moment I've been waiting to use my bug vacuum for!"
You guys aren't weird, you're doin' a good job :)
Posted by: Leigh | July 04, 2008 at 04:37 AM