Sprigs: Spiders set the trip-wire

All of a sudden the spiders are in high gear.  There are so many webs that I feel like the yard has been set with tripwires. Watch where you walk or you'll be wiping silk from your face--or jumping up and down flapping your hands, depending on you feel about spiders.


One recent morning we spotted several "classic" webs shimmering in the fog.




















And both  the yard and shrubs hosted many of the shallow "bowl" type webs. 







My favorite sighting, though, was a web strung between two trees about twelve feet apart. The spider had constructed a web horizontally, seven feet off of the ground. It looked like a small trampoline made out of a doily, rising and falling with the slightest puff of air. 

Lots of folks hate spiders, and I'm not fond of them in the house, but they are fascinating in their own habitat. Strong, nimble, excellent craftsmen, and persistent. You can't help but admire their handiwork.