Changes

I never dreamed I’d become attached to a spider. “Charlotte” was beautiful! Yellow and black with a belly full of eggs. Every time I went in and out of the house for the last few weeks, I check on her progress. I watched her grow and I carefully protected her web. She continually preened and cleaned…both herself and her web. She kept building onto that web till it was truly a work of art.

When I went out yesterday morning, something caught my I eye. I looked over and Charlotte was gone! Her web was tired and had bits of grass and leaves from the wind. My eyes were drawn upwards because sometimes she went clear to the eves when she was startled.

And…there it was.

Charlotte wove a large silk sac in which to lay hundreds and hundreds of tiny little eggs. They will overwinter in the protection of the home their mother provided. They never know her. She’ll be long dead by the time the spiderlings emerge with the warmth of spring. They’ll scatter and through a process called ballooning, they will throw a strand of silk up into the air and drift away to parts unknown.

I’m really happy to have the egg sac nearby, but it may be a little bit too close to the door for my liking. I’ve studied and found you can carefully move it to another protected place in the yard. We have a grove of trees on the other side of the building. I may move the nest over there. I says that you can use a needle and thread and sew through the compact “stem” the nest hangs on. I’ll wait till I am absolutely sure that Charlotte isn’t coming back before I do that.

I’ll miss her presence in my life but what a privilege to watch her beautiful life with only one purpose…to make more spiders!

I have the camper just about packed the way I want it. I cleaned organized in the couple of hours before the storm. The air was so thick with humidity and so hot that I was wet from head to toe. If it wasn’t for the lightning and thunder from the oncoming storm, I would have stood out there in the rain to cool off!

I’m really looking forward to spending time with Gail…knitting, noshing, and napping in our little home on wheels. Heading out with Scooter and Grace…just like old times!

Till tomorrow, dear ones…

#Camping #campinglife #fall #fallcamping #autumn









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