Day #351 Great Big Spider

A great big elegant spider of an unknown species (unknown to me, that is) has taken up her residence outside my bay window. Her body is wider than my thumb (and I have fat thumbs!).  I took these two pictures of her against the reflections from the window. This first picture shows her size. The second (fuzzy) one shows her legs. The orange in the background comes from the early morning lights inside as the spider ran toward the side of her web.

The other day, she ate one of my bees.

I have to admit, I was a bit ticked off at her. I rather like spiders. They eat lots of bugs. In fact, I imported some daddy longlegs a while back so they could eat up the itsy-bitsy ants that had invaded my kitchen.

But eating one of my bees was going too far. She wrapped the hapless bee in a graceful silken sack and hovered over it for quite some time. I think she was sucking out all the juices. Yuck!

Today, though, she’s back to eating mosquitoes and aphids. Hope she stays away from the bees from now on.

I’ve decided to assume that the bee she ate was at the end of its 6-week life cycle. That’s recycling at its best.

BEEattitude for Day # 351:

       Blessed are those who recycle, for they shall have a cleaner world. (But we bees wish they wouldn’t recycle us too early!)

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JUST ABOUT OUT OF TIME

Get Your Dog in My Next Book!

For only two more days, anyone who donates $10 to WAG, also known as the Walton Animal Guild, will be automatically entered in a drawing.

If you win, your dog will be in my next Biscuit McKee mystery!

http://www.wagwalton.com/News.php

The donate button is right on their home page

Every $10 donation is automatically entered in the drawing

See Blog #324 for the details.

Day #323 Night-time Cleanup Crew

Birdfeeders are messy. All around them, birds scatter seeds, feathers, and the end products of digestion. That’s what they do in my front yard. It’s okay, though. I have a clean-up crew who come around every night, 24/7. They never take a day off. They never complain. They keep the area under my “squirrel-proof” birdfeeders looking (relatively) tidy.

And I don’t have to pay them!

Last night I went out to bring in the feeders—because if I don’t, the cleaner-uppers climb the pole and empty them for me—and heard scrabblings up the trunk on the majestic tulip poplar that stands near my front door.

I stood still and waited. Within seconds a black-masked little face peeked around the trunk about ten feet off the ground.  Before I could say, “Good evening, little friend,” a second face poked its way over the first one’s shoulder.

Two nights ago, I remembered after I was practically asleep that I’d forgotten to bring in the feeders. I barged out the front door without thinking and startled a possum on my front porch. She cleans up the niger seeds the goldfinches drop.

During the day, pigeons and doves and other sorts of ground-feeders pick up what the raccoons and the possums miss.

And the daddy-longleg spiders inside the house clear up any ants who find their way inside.

Life is good.

BEEattitude for Day # 323:

       Blessed are those who take the time to observe what we animals do and who appreciate us, for they shall reap the benefit of our activity.

Coming Soon: a raffle, so your dog might be in my next book!

Details on September 1^st!

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http://www.franstewart.com