beware of spider

Boy I hope I don't alienate you with this post which I've decided to put up with a warning title.
I've left all the pictures purposefully small, but I've worked on them to get the best detail I could, so if you would like to see more, just click on each photo for its largest version.

Wally was about to mount the ladder when he found this huge, by Canadian standards, spider: Argiope aurantia

I don't know where I summoned my courage from to get as close as I did to take her picture

but the truth is she wasn't happy either and vacated her web between the rungs of the ladder

awkwardly scrambling away

Commonly known as Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Black and Yellow Argiope, Garden Spider, Writing Spider, Golden Orbweaver, the Argiope aurantia is pretty abundant everywher in the USA and southeastern Canada but is not common in parts of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountains. Its range extends as far south as Costa Rica in Central America.

Argiope is Latin for “with bright face” (Cameron 2005); aurantia, in Latin, is an adjective meaning “orange-colored.”

While I wonder why the Latins didn't have a word for yellow, I can see where our word "orange" stems from the pronunciation of the Lation word "aurantia".

"Little" Miss Argiope makes a slow run for it.

Except that she was large which I think is common for female spiders, I don't know why I thought this was a female but sure enough:

the adult female has a carapace silver or white, top of abdomen boldly patterned in black and yellow, while the underside of the abdomen is mottled black with two vertical, parallel yellow stripes. Adult males are typically shades of brown and much, much smaller than the female.

She has a total of eight eyes. The median eyes are grouped together in a trapezoid shape, while the lateral eyes are some distance away. I guess there are 8 eyes her in and around that triangular hat shape.

The legs of mature female specimens are yellowish or reddish brown at base and black distally. Immature specimens have entirely banded legs. Legs of adult male mostly brown with faded black bands. So again, another reason she is decidedly female.

Each tarsus (tip of leg) has 3 claws, but I can't make them out.

Argiope aurantia is one of the largest members of the orb weaver family Araneidae in North America. Because of its size and bright coloration, this species is one of the most commonly known and recognized by observers.

Two more interesting facts:

It takes almost all of its potty breaks at night, and often leaves its web to do so.

This spider will rapidly shake and vibrate in its web as a defensive strategy to scare predators off.

The shaking blurs the spider and makes it appear bigger than it really is, though ours didn't try this strategy on us.

Anyway, I was thoroughly creeped out after this session, not only of photographing her, but of preparing this post. Even so, I found it and what I learned in research fascinating.

I hope you have survived this and forgive me,

for after all, when we say we love nature,

she is part of it.

amazing september

It's already been 10 days since I took these pictures

on a quiet Sunday morning, marveling the creative technology and expanse

 that this spider web covered

 

with an expansive view over the hayfield out back

the tomatoes ripen slowly, the way they are supposed to

 

The next day we headed off to Halifax where I amused myself,

taking photos from the car as Wally drove

 

First stop was a restoration salvage store that we so enjoyed

These are flanges that sit behind a door handle

and these, of course, are old handle sets

flanges with key holes for a more complicated door handle

Odd that the best of my photos were door handles when there was so much else to see,

but I must admit that we were on the fly and stacked windows and doors don't make for great shots.

On our way downtown we got a glimpse of the new library

 

Just beyond is the old Nova Scotia Technical College, remarkably pillared,

now named the Medjuck Architecture Building. Note all the bicycles parked to the left,

which explains how some deal with the lack of parking.

 

We were on our way to a favourite stop, a letterpress shop called Inkwell

which I have no pictures of though they are easy to find online.

 

You may recall the pictures I took last summer when we made this same trip and the view across from Inkwell was a giant hole in the ground that is now filled with tons of steel.

 

There was no time to stop at this other favourite stop, Black Market Boutique,

a feast of colour import shop

and just beyond this crazy pizza hut with its upstairs outdoor dining,

incongruously place next to a yoga centre

 

Halifax has some lovely rowhouses on the way to my

doctor's office! The view was a nice distraction as we waited 45! minutes for my check-up

with the threatening sign that we would be charged $40 for arriving late.

 

Thankfully I had my little camera to keep me amused. I didn't realize that I had taken this picture

 "coming 

and going"

 

Downtown Halifax is full of O-o-ld buildings like this flying buttressed gothic church

 

To get to the Nova Scotia Designers Craft Council ( try saying that 3 times fast)-which turned out to be closed,- we had to drive behind the old train station, that is hidden behind the trees and is outsized by the enormous Westin hotel.

 

As we approached the old pier that now houses the craft council shop as well as Pier 21 ( the old immigration centre) as well as a huge farmer's market and brewery, we were Wowed! by the impressive size of not one, but 2 gigantic cruise liners

looming behind the brown building, this magnificent ship

the Holland America

Well, try to find free parking downtown during rush hour,

we found a meter and watched the starlings as we ate our picnic lunch in the car.

I get a kick out of these perky little birds.

 

After a pleasant trip to our favourite art supply store, we ventured out

as the rush hour diminished, passing this neighbourhood of funky second hand shops

People still wending their way home

 

Looks like black and white is in

 

That is what was on my mind, having been struck by Vincent Van Gogh's desire for a blacker black when he was learning lithography.  I have only 100+ pages to go in my 800+ page biography that I've been slowly consuming all summer.

Wally bought me 2 black pencils, a Derwent, and a Koh-I-Noor Progresso, and mixed media sketchbook  to reward me for being such a good girl at the doctor's office.

 I drew this in the car on the way home

 

I will have more of my latest artwork to share with you tomorrow.

Til then, a sweet end to an amazing September.

 

holding peace in our hearts