spider season

One of my favorite things about this time of year is the spiders. You can see their webs in the grass, all shimmery with dew in the morning or in the rain. There are just dozens and dozens of them all across our lawn. If you get down to their level you can look down into their web tunnels and see them waiting inside the tunnels, ready to jump out and pounce. We have several spiders on the patio guarding egg sacs and dozens in the compost bin. Lots of baby spiders. We have little crab spiders on the flowers. Two months ago we had an egg sac hatch near the patio and we watched the babies for days crawl around and jump into the wind and find suitable places to build the tiniest webs. These babies were banded garden spiders, one of my favorite spiders. They are the giants you see outside in large orb webs, particularly at night, at the end of summer. They can be an inch across with very long legs and are striking when you take a flashlight out at night and shine it on them. Right now they are still young and smallish (about a 1/4 inch) but over the next month or so they will grow quite large.