Snowy Speculations

-
Image
If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
Post a Comment

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

-

 Here Today, Gone Tomorrow! 

The Story of our Charlotte's Web


As autumn approaches, the sounds of nature's nightlife seem to reach new crescendos. It's the perfect time to sit in the light of a bonfire and to just listen to the music and cacophony all around!

It was just by-chance that I turned on the spotlight over our side deck the other night and saw our newest resident arachnid.  This spider seems to have found the perfect spot to set up its magnificent trap for the thousands of insects whirring about.  The light illuminated off of its yellow body as it scurried along the lines, adding and improving continuously. I stood within a foot of its web and it did not falter for a second or give me the time of day. If this spider had been the feature of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White and residing in Wilbur the pig's stall, it would surely have spun "INCREDIBLE" into its silk to reflect its work. 

When I pulled back the curtains to let the sun in the next morning, not a trace of the web or the big spider (thank goodness) was anywhere in sight! Strange, considering the amount of work that went into the web only hours before. So I made a mental note to watch for the possible return of the spider that night. Sure enough, as the skies turned to late dusk, I was able to catch a glimpse of a simply magnificent piece of art being spun and woven right before my very eyes. This spider connected a line from the pine tree to our deck to our house, anchoring its web on three different vantage points. It started with a tight little ball in the centre and continued its spinning from there. Every fifteen minutes or so I would walk back to the sliding door, turn on the spotlight to illuminate its handiwork and be absolutely amazed at the speed and agility this creature worked with. 

But the next morning, the web was gone again. 

I searched online to see if I could discover what kind of spiders lived in Southern Ontario, if I could identify our little squatter and to see if there was a reason why the web disappeared mysteriously overnight. According to ONnaturemagazine.com, our little house-pet is an orb weaver. They spin and remake their webs daily or every few days, eating their webs to recycle the silk. Talk about eating the fruits of your labour...

As the sounds of the night insects roared to life last night, I went to the side deck again and turned on the spotlight. But there was no web to be seen. One strand of silk hung forlornly in the night, swaying back and forth in the light breeze. I was surprised at the disappointment I felt, especially since I am not partial to these eight-legged critters and a strange melancholy at this spider's departure almost set it in. Change is inevitable. Pretty soon we'll be hearing the honking of the Canada Geese overhead and already the leaves on the trees in the forest behind are starting to yellow and fall to the ground.

Every day this spider worked diligently to catch its supper and cleaned up without leaving any evidence of its existence behind. Night after night, it started fresh, not giving up or tiring of its endless task. Its miniscule environmental footprint is one we can strive to mimic. And as long as it sets up camp outside of my house and doesn't venture beyond the welcome mat, we can continue to co-exist in this beautiful world we live in!

Lolita Schimann Hale

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snowy Speculations

-
Image
If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
Read more

The Sleeping Giant

-
Image
 Well, our Septic Sagas have finally come to an end. Our 75-year-old septic system finally gave up the ghost and we now have a giant burial ground to commemorate its existence. For those of you familiar with the Sleeping Giant in Thunder Bay, we now have the Sleeping Giant of Niagara-on-the-Lake! Our once flat property now has the privilege of having a septic mound that is our daily view right out of our dining room window - lucky us!  The kid in me can't resist walking around our new Hale Hill. Every time I stand on top of the mound, I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic yelling out, "I'm the king of the world!" But I haven't been able to trek up Mount Rushmore this week as my husband spent several hundred dollars at Minor Brothers on grass seed and is tenderly watering the baby seedlings, now just a mere green shadow on the brown dirt, with the hopes that the Hale Hill will soon be covered in a blanket of greenery and blend into the existing landscape. That
Read more

A scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?

-
Image
 I was working in my home office at the front of the house early yesterday morning. The dogs had been taken out and fed and I was being quite productive already. All of a sudden I heard a little noise and assumed that the cat had come upstairs. Then Gus, our Pom-with-an-attitude, started growling. None of these occurrences were in any way different from any other day. Then the growling started again followed by his incessant, high-pitched barking and Sadie, our old lab who never does anything but eat and sleep, started growling and barking as well. I ran out to shush them both as the kids were still sleeping and heard another bit of scurrying in the living room. It had to be the cat, of course. I closed the pocket door between the kitchen and hallway and started heading back to my office to continue working when a small movement caught my eye. I turned around quickly to see a tan-coloured squirrel scurrying across the hardwood floors, past the grand piano in the living room (I would ha
Read more