Our eight-legged friends...

I like spiders. It is just part of who I am. And I didn't think there were too many women around who shared this fascination with them.

But, I was surprised to learn some years ago that my friend, Sheila, who shares my interest in spiders, and she has kept me supplied with spider stuff. On Saturday, a group of us gathered for lunch for my birthday, and she gave me a spider candle holder and a spider pin to go along with a beautiful spider pin she gave me several years ago. On various previous occasions she has given me...
A spider pen...
Metal spiders...

A spider basket for the coffee filters....


and spider soap, among other things.

Between Sheila and another friend, Nancy, and my own efforts, I also have spider potholders, a spider tote bag for carrying stuff, a spider Christmas tree ornament, a spider necklace, a spider cuff-bracelet, another spider pin, a shocking purple T-shirt with a fluorescent spider web and a big black spider in the middle, and other spidery things.


No, she didn't give me a rubber spider hanging from sewing thread. I did that all by myself. And she didn't provide the cobwebs that I tend to forget to sweep down.

There are plenty of real spiders too. Go back and take a close at the picture of the spider soap, toward the bottom, hanging between the pottery and the frog.

True, it's a little fuzzy. I didn't even realize it was there when I took the picture. It's interesting how one can look right at something and still not see it.

This is my second favorite type of spider, the Argiope aurantia.

I rescued her on the road when Richard and I were taking a walk. And I know it is a her because the male spider of this species is very small. Yes, its out of focus. It wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a good clear shot. There is a nice clear photo of the spider here

A few days after that, Richard called me to rescue this very large wolf spider that was in the bathtub. How large was it? Biggest one I have ever seen, about as big as the palm of my hand. Maybe it was a variety of tarantula and not a wolf spider at all. How did it come to be in our bathtub? Did it crawl up the drain? The gray water from the house is not connected to a sewer, septic system, or a pickle pond -- it flows down a pipe out to the wet weather creek. We used to collect it in a 50-gallon drum and use it to water the garden, but that's another story.

I had to use a 2-gallon plastic pitcher to rescue it. Richard was worried its legs would be damaged if I tried to catch it in a pint-sized canning jar.

And off it goes, headed for freedom.

And this is my favorite spider. Some years ago, back before digital cameras were invented, back in the era when people used film, Richard posed this little fellow on a matchbook cover and took his picture with the telephoto lens. I don't remember how he imagined to get it to still, but he did. Isn’t he a cutie? Shut up now, yes he is!!!