Saturday morning adventures

Actually, the title should probably say afternoon, since I slept really late. I was eating breakfast while my brothers were eating lunch. I rarely sleep so late, but it was really nice today!

After breakfast, I went outside to tend my cayenne pepper plant and the hyacinth pond. We have a small fountain in our backyard with water hyacinths around it, and it needed water and some Miracle-Gro. As I was running the hose into it, I saw The Spiderweb. It was about 14 inches across and had a HUGE spider in the center of it. This spider's legs spanned three inches, and its smooth, round body was black with an intricate yellow and black pattern of stripes and dots. No, I didn't scream! I ran to get my camera and spent ten minutes standing on a wobbly rock in the middle of the hyacinth pond, trying to take a picture of the fascinating arachnid. It was a very precarious situation, with hyacinths up to my bare knees and my flipflops sliding down the round rock into the cool green water, and a caterpillar inching across my toes--but I got the picture!

Then I remembered that Daniel, my youngest brother, is in the midst of creating an insect collection for his science class. I checked out the arachnid on the Internet and found that it was fairly safe to capture and that it was named a Golden Orb Weaver. Isn't that a poetic name? I also discovered that it was a female and that the male orb-weaving spiders are one-quarter the size of the females!

To make a long story short(er), Daniel and the neighbor boy decided to catch it. This was a more arduous task than they had previously assumed, and so the neighbor caught some small grasshoppers to throw into the web, so it would move into a more capturable position. The Golden Orb Weaver suddenly pounced on the unsuspecting grasshopper and dramatically sprayed filament all over it, rolled it up deftly, injected anesthetic, and proceeded to...never mind, you know what spiders do to their prey. We were all gathered around--Daniel with a jar, the neighbor with another grasshopper, and myself with a camera--so we got a very good view of the situation. Needless to say, the boys were delighted to actually see it all happen, and the result was a chorus of ooh's, aah's, ugh's, and "that is so totally sweet!" I must admit that it was quite intriguing. Insects in general don't really bother me, so the only scare I had was when I was bending over, my face about eight inches from The Spider, and a very large grasshopper landed right on my head!

Well, Daniel caught it, and killed it in a chemical jar, and he'll pin it up later. I was merely the photographer, but I did enjoy spending time with Daniel, doing something that HE wanted to do for a change. Lately I've been trying to build better relationships with Drew and Daniel, and getting to know them for who they are. I enjoy them so much! I am so blessed to have two awesome younger brothers.

I would definitely encourage you to get to know your younger siblings for who they are. Take time out to invest in their lives. Spend time with them doing whatever they want to do--whether it's discussing Star Wars, catching Golden Orb Weavers, hunting frogs in the ditch, or playing Barbies. You'll never regret it!