For David - Orb-Weaver - Topanga, CA - 1971

Click on photo to enlarge

I've been an absentee blogger for the past week or so and one of our local bloggers, David, commented that if I'm not going to blog I should at least go and visit his blog to identify a spider he photographed.

Well David, I'm no arachnid expert but your spider (nice photo by the way) appears to be very similar to this Orb-Weaver I photographed on my front porch in Topanga Canyon 35 years ago.

It spun the most beautiful symmetrical webs that were backlit each night by my porchlight. I was very protective of this spider and when anyone came in the yard I asked them to please avoid walking through the web, although I did accidently walk through it a few times myself, only to watch the spider patiently rebuild it in the very same place.

Another of the countless fascinating creatures that make our world so magic and interesting, and David, if you don't want that one around, you can always bring it over to Earth Home Garden and I'll give it a corner of the porch to decorate.

This type of Orb-Weaver is somewhat reluctant of biting people, and, from what I understand, only very mildly venomous if provoked to do so.

I've been too intoxicated with nature to sit at the computer much and I apologize again for neglecting my blog friends, but right now Earth Home Garden reminds me of a miniature version of Califonia's Central Valley "bee pastures" (pre-agriculture era) as described by John Muir in his book 'The Mountains Of California', and I just can't stand to be inside.

I took this photo on my front porch in September of 1971 with my brand new Nikon F1 (a luxury I could afford only because of my, also new, job as a postman). The picture was recently tweaked a little bit in Photoshop to enhance the image copied from a 35 year-old slide and emphasize the spider's striking design.