This raindrop-laden spider web appears every night and is dismantled every morning. I am constantly amazed at the industry of spiders, who spin their web night after night to the same pattern according to their genetic memory, catch a few bugs if they are lucky and then remove it. I think it must be so that the bugs can't see the trap during the day!
We have a bamboo canopy over the deck and the hollow sticks provide the perfect hiding place for a number of spiders and even the odd wasp and bumble bee. While I enjoy observing the wildlife, the rest of the family indulge in their phobias to maximum effect, refusing to set foot outside after sunset. I suppose I am lucky to have no phobias, only a refusal to touch a worm, so it is always my job to get rid of spiders, moths, praying mantises, wasps, bees, flies and anything else you can imagine. I have told them that once you have had children and changed nappies (the good old-fashioned towelling ones!) there is very little that can scare you. It really is a case of mind over matter.
My favourite spider story involved my son coming home late one night and putting his hand out to open the door, when he noticed a particularly large and hairy spider draped over the doorknob. Needless to say, he phoned my cellphone, woke me up and demanded that I open the door. I can't remember if that was the occasion when he screamed like a girl - no, that was the time he lay down on his bed and straight above him on the ceiling was a completely harmless rain spider, minding its own business. Once again, mother to the rescue.
To finish off my spider story, here is a picture I took of one that was blocking my view of the full moon.
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