Thursday 4 October 2012

Natural beauties

I'm all outta words for the moment so in the meantime here are a couple more pictures which seemed quite striking, taken in the back garden...





14 comments:

  1. As a child I played around some blackberry bushes at the end of out short street. One day I ran into, at face level, a spider much like the one you photographed. It seemed huge and was suspended in the middle of it's web. I stayed away from those bushes for a long time after that! It was one of the most startling moments of my life. Later I got revenge of sorts finding what I momentarily took for bits of shredded wheat in my cup of tea one day. I realized a spider must have plopped itself into the kettle when it was empty and accidentally gotten boiled. Mu-hu-ha, except that too was one of the most startling moments of my life!

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    1. Eww - boiled spider in your cuppa?! - aargh! I can totally understand your alarm! Hope you can get to like them one day, Rebecca - I'm the kinda person who goes round saving them from drowning in the bird bath etc... I love the little darlings!

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  2. The shot of the spider is fantastic. I wonder if they're aware of their own shadow - do they think it's a predator or prey?

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    1. Thanks - the shadow really caught my eye, the spider was suspended just in front but you can't see her web in the photo. She's like a 'pet' spider, that one, as she lives in a plant that grows by the side of the wall and has been there all summer. I go out and check on her every day! I imagine she was totally oblivious to the shadow - but I wonder if she's aware of me?!

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  3. I love the spiders at this time of year - my garden is ... "low maintenance" (i.e. I'm a rubbish gardener who doesn't like doing it!) and so we have a load of bushes etc. They cast these amazing webs at this time between the various bushes - we have a tree on the pavement right outside our house too - they sometimes manage to create ones from the bushes up to the branches of the tree - 8ft or more drops - fantastic stuff

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    1. Ah, I'm like you Furtheron - with a low maintenance garden which encourages lots of these garden spiders and I do love to see them all come out at this time of year too. The way they weave those webs is amazing - your one from the bushes to the tree sounds incredible, just imagine what the equivalent of human 8ft is in spider terms... miles!

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  4. Love the little green chap, but his arachnid chum has made all my hair stand on end.

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    1. Sorry about that...

      But spiders - oh, they're beautiful (in their own way), they're harmless (in this country), they're extremely environmentally friendly, they're hard-working (just look at those webs!) and they're heavily persecuted for the way they look. They need kindness, support and tolerance. Love a spider today, you won't regret it.

      (That was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Spider Appreciation Party...)

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    2. I'd rather be trapped in an elevator with the little green fella but...the spider photograph is really striking.

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    3. Ah, everybody loves the little green fella! I was so struck by the 'design' on his back - so perfect and beautiful, I know they are called 'shield' bugs for good reason but this particular one really does look like something out of 'Zulu', don't you think?!

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    4. He does...or something out of the cannibal Congo.

      Some of those East African shields are really gorgeous...especially the Massai and the Azande.

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  5. Ha - yes why is it that 2 to 6 legs, or 10 or more, are ok with most people - but that the dreaded 8 legs isn't?! It's a strange one - I wonder if you'd feel differently if that little green shield bug had 8 legs?

    Just think, if spiders knew the fear they cause in so many humans, they could take over the world!

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  6. Both great pics but that spider one is so good it would make a great cover for an album....maybe by the Shadow Spiders!!

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