Spiders I have known

 “Once you begin watching spiders, you haven't time for much else.” 

~ E.B. White

Nope...not pointing fingers here or telling a tale. This is literal. I wanted a place to gather the photos of some spiders I have found and appreciated, if not loved.

One of the largest garden spiders I have ever seen. Observed at my parents house. 2015.

A small spider. Art Barn. 2016.

Tunnel spiders filled Indian Hawthorn bushes. Irvine, California. 2016

Someone is home at the end of the tunnel.

None too friendly looking.

This is not a good photo. Sorry. And I cannot recognize the foliage. So I an not sure of the location, but it is one of my favorites, a garden spider.

This is a smallish garden spider in the aspidestra at my home. I think I expected him to grow larger and never saw him/her at a larger size. 2015

This spider was on the outside of my window at work - my second floor window. It built a web and caught this insect. I spent a few choice moments watching the spider carefully wrap the bug (it is a true bug). 2005-2015 - not sure when it was. I suspect smack in the middle, so we can call it 2010.

While photographing the honeysuckle in the park I captured this battle. 2016

I'm fairly confident this spider was in our hotel room in Dublin (Ireland, not Texas) in 2014. I normally let spiders do their thing, but this one had to be eliminated for the security of the group.

One golden morning I found spiders in every gap in the woods. The sunlight was hitting them just right. How could I resist? 2016

More to come - like this spider hiding in my windshield wiper:

See the creature...it traveled back and forth building a web inside the wiper.

And at Berry Springs Park (we were looking for frogs, but found loads of things):

This spider looked like a type of garden spider. That web is familiar.

This spider built a web between tree limbs. We avoided the web (barely seen here in the upper right corner) and tried to get a photo.

Crazy spider in the art barn. Twist tie used for comparison. 9-2016

Woohoo! Two more from the park this morning (9-25-2016):

Initially this one looked like a leaf on the web. Then I focused.

 A few hundred feet away, along the edge of the woods:

This guy looked very "furry."

October, 2016 at the house

What a fabulous example of an orb weaver's web. I am praying for a heavy dew tomorrow morning.

Darn - no dew, but some nice photos...

I'm not sure if s/he was sleeping or ready to pounce. When I tapped the web, it "woke" and went wild.

And then tonight I got a little video and more photos:

10:00 p.m. We found these two spiders face to face (legs to legs?). Soon after this photo something happened and suddenly they were on different parts of the web. We will keep watching. [The usual spider is the one on the right.]

  The spider's web: She finds an innocuous corner in which to spin her web. 

The longer the web takes, the more fabulous its construction. 

She has no need to chase. She sits quietly, her patience a consummate force; 

 she waits for her prey to come to her on their own, 

and then she ensnares them, 

injects them with venom,

 rendering them unable to escape. 

Spiders – so needed and yet so misunderstood.

~Donna Lynn Hope