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Sunday 30 November 2008

Even spiders can be beautiful


We've been having some really strange weather lately. Given the early start to the cropping season this year, P should have just about finished harvest by now. Instead he's hardly started, having spent the last couple of weeks watching the rain come down. Nothing too heavy, thank goodness. But enough to make it impossible to harvest. We've been pretty lucky really. Parts of the Wheatbelt have totally lost their crops to rain and hail (after years of drought).


Now, at last, the sun is shining and there's a hint of summer in the air. This morning I actually had to water my garden, er...my weed patch. That's where I saw proof that summer is on its way. Near the tap I found a web with three 'Christmas spiders' sitting in it. Very neighbourly they looked. Then I found another in a bush. They don't have their Christmas colours all year, just around Christmas, hence their name. I'm not normally keen on spiders, but I have to admit that these are very pretty.

Now the only problem is that if the Christmas spiders are here, the Christmas beetles will be here soon too. They're not pretty at all. They're little brown beads that bombard you if you try to go outside at night, or invade your house if you're silly enough to leave the door open. Very annoying. Oh well, maybe the ducks will enjoy them.

7 comments:

Kelly Polark said...

That is one interesting spider! I have spiders on my mind, I just watched the Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets scene with the giant spiders! Eek!

Luc2 said...

Wow, it looks like one of these Pokemon creatures.

Kate said...

Kelly, I don't think I'd hang around to take photos of a spider like the one in Harry Potter.

Luc, I hadn't thought of that, but now you mention it, it does!

Brenda said...

What a neat looking spider...I would never have guessed that was a spider in your first picture...it looks almost like a crab...grin...

Rena Jones said...

That is an interesting looking spider, Kate. At least it's not that humungous one that made the news recently from Australia. Did you see the pictures of the one eating the bird? Eeeks. Now that was a big spider!

You said this one didn't have his Christmas colours yet. When do they start changing?

C.R. Evers said...

Oh wow! I've never seen anything like that before. I hate spiders, but once there was this gorgeous yellow and black gigantic spider in the bushes outside my house. At first I wanted to kill it, but it was so "pretty". So, I looked it up on the internet, found that it wasn't poisonous and it was good for keeping insects at bay, so I let him stay. That was the first spider that I've allowed to live so close by. I'd let the one in your picture live too. ;0) After I was sure it's not poisonous, of course.

Poisonous spiders are one of my greatest fears.

Kate said...

lol, Brenda. I know Australia has some strange creatures, butI don't think we include any tree-climbing crabs!

Rena, I hadn't heard about the bird-eating spider, so I looked it up. Urrrrrk! We have a similar spider in our garden occasionally. Their webs are bright yellow and really, really, sticky. I generally leave them alone unless they make a web where we might walk into it.

Christy, these spiders are not poisonous. Most of the year they're plain little brown things that hide in the garden and don't bother anyone. We have redbacks and white-tails, both poisonous. I don't let them stay around for long!