Not a scary, horrid-hairy, ginormous, swallow you in one gulp sort of spider.
Oh, no. Dinah wouldn’t be so cruel to her readers.Would she? Read on to find out.If you dare!
We have been doing some long overdue work in part of the garden.
Our new-ish neighbour has cleared the boundary strip and we (that’s The Man, mainly) have cleared our side of the fence. This has allowed in a lot more light and created some open spaces that just cried out for plants. So I’ve been relocating some of the overgrown pots and cuttings. Shade-lovers, mainly, because although on the north-eastern side, they still have quite dense shade from the palms.
Probably a Christella of some sort. It (and several others), like Topsy, “just growed.”
And this morning, while hosing yesterday’s newbies, I noticed droplets on a damaged web.A neat quarter has been broken away from an orb web. The spider is still in residence and I managed a photo. Better still, I’m pretty sure I’ve identified it. Yay! It’s not often I can.
I thought it was in the Tetragnathidae so I Googled that and found this interesting (well, interesting to spider buffs, that is!) link http://tolweb.org/Tetragnathidae/2799. Known by a common name of “long jaws” for good reason, these cute lil guys have a courtship technique not unlike snogging in the back row of the Gaumont Cinema.
This is a macro shot that I did manage to get. Not the best, but neither was the weather! Clicking should make it a little clearer.
Now that I’ve managed to educate you on scare the tripe out of you, I’m off to the purveyor of plonk. A girl can work up a navvy’s thirst just to plant a few ferns, y’know!
Moreidlethoughts Weblog 
I JUST SAW a spider that looked exactly like that in my back yard this afternoon! Is that possible? Not that it’s the same one, silly. That the species can stretch this far out?
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I was going to say that I know they occur in Hawaii, then thought I should check my facts. Yep! You could quite probably see these in Jersey. Here’s another link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragnatha
By the way, they don’t hurt.I’ve walked into dozens of them and the worst they do is tickle a bit.Saturday at the Gaumont, all over a again! 😉
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Beautiful spider photo Di! The water droplets on the web are lovely.
When I was about 6, I spent an afternoon tormenting one of those spiders by spraying it with water from an old syringe. I feel bad about it now, but at the time it was great fun.
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Oh, Amanda! I did unkind things, too.It was, I suppose, a “scientific inquiry” kind of thing.I didn’t kill my captives. Well, not intentionally!
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Lovely photo Di, they are certainly in my garden too. Funny, my next post will also have a spider alert. It’s spider season, obviously.
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Oh-oh! Heads up, guys! Carol lives in funnel web territory… 🙂
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I am comfortable with a money spider sitting on my shoulder and that’s about it.
Sx
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Scarlet, m’dear, I wish you many money spiders after your recent travails. sx
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Spiders don’t faze me, and their webs are often beautiful. Except for the scruffiness of red-back webs. I loved your macro, and envy you the rain.
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Actually, the rain lasted about one minute,then was overcast. 😦
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So that’s what I missed by not going to the matinees….tickled by spiders
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🙂
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I have just spent some time catching up on your photos and love the spider on the damaged web, he doesn’t look too concerned about it and no doubt repaired it.
The gardens is looking lovely and healthy.
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Thank you. It’s a “work in progress.”
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i am an aracnaphobe, but find the orb weavers to be more tolerable than most – they generally prefer large, OUTDOOR, and open spaces, and are pretty artistic with those webs… great photo. (and thanks for the warning… i felt brave enough to wander in this morning)
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Well done!
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I’m not particularly afraid of spiders. I found one in my bathroom and I helped it outside because I don’t like killing them. And I’m glad your out working in your garden because I know how much you love it.
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We don’t kill spiders either. Though we don’t have many indoors here.The former home was a very different story.There, we had HUGE hunstman spiders. The Man developed a catch-and-release technique. My excuse was that he was taller and could reach the brutes!
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The spider doesn’t scare me but some of your plants do!
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Really? There’s nothing scary here. A little weird, maybe…
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I love spiders I don’t do a face-plant in or roll over on in bed. Beautiful, and such soulful eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes. Meanwhile, “snogging in the back row of the Gaumont Cinema” is a bit of a lyric that will sweeten my dreams tonight. As is “a girl can work up a navvy’s thirst just to plant a few ferns.”
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We aim to please, ma’am. You might like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider When you get to NZ, if you spend time in Auckland, ask someone to find you an Avondale spider.
Now, I’d better call Daisyfae and tell her not to read any further comments!!:-)
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