Late Night Web Spinning

Last night just before nine, Bill noticed that the spider that lives in the clothesline housing on the corner of our house was busily spinning a new web.

And she’d become quite ambitious.  Instead of running the main strands to points on the house and the clothesline as before, this time she had launched herself from the house to my car. 

That’s right.  The main anchor strands stretched from the corner of the house all the way to the top of my car.  It’s about six feet, at least.

When I went outside, she’d done maybe half a dozen rings around the outer edges of her intended web.  She still had a lot more to go.

I watched her scrambling around and around, and she ignored the harsh glare of my flashlight.  I figured I’d quit bothering her and let her get on with her job.

A little later I went back outside to check on her progress. 

She was finished.  The web was huge.  About a foot and a half wide, and closer to two from top to bottom.  She hung, motionless, her work finished, in the center.

I tried taking pictures, but it was hard – the camera didn’t want to focus in the dark, and the flashlight didn’t illuminate the entire web.  I did the best I could, using manual focus and just refocusing and refocusing, taking pictures all the while.

In retrospect, I could have asked Bill to hold the flashlight, or I could have set up a tripod.  But I didn’t think of it then. 

Here’s the best shot I got. 

WARNING – THERE IS A SPIDER IN THE IMAGE BELOW.  IN CASE LOOKING AT SPIDERS FREAKS YOU OUT OR SCARES OR OTHERWISE UNNERVES YOU.  JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW SO YOU HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO CLICK ON SOMETHING ELSE OUT THERE ON THE BIG WIDE INTERNET.

Okay, here’s the picture.  Last chance to click away.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it? 

Overnight it poured rain.  In fact, I think it’s still raining as I type. 

Yep, it is. 

And the heavy rain has been battering the web relentlessly.

This is what remains.

Pardon the blurriness.  I was holding – appropriately enough – Alex’s Spiderman umbrella while I tried to take the shot.

I’m sure, once the rain ends, she’ll be back at work, rebuilding.

For now, I think she’s tucked inside her pale blue cave.  Sipping tea and designing her next web.

Comments

[Cyndi]

The photos are wonderful.

[joanne]

Ok... so you think she lives in the pod-like thingy that you use to hold your clothespins? How do you ever put your hand in to get the pins? I shudder...

[jayne]

joanne - no, I don't keep the clothespins in there, that's where the clothesline coils when I don't have it in use. Right now she's got plenty of space to set up housekeeping, and I leave the line out most of the time in the summer because I use it a lot.

It's weird - I don't have the same EEEEK!!! response to spiders I used to. Especially outside. If they're inside, it's a bit different, and the way I see it, my home is my web, and maybe they shouldn't have ventured into it.

I don't EAT them, of course. ;)