Charlotte, is that you?

The spinning of a spider’s tale

Hi! My name is Charlotte. But, I am not that Charlotte. I don’t have a pig friend. And I don’t live in a barn.

But I do actually have four cat friends and two humans who like to watch me while I am working. Sometimes, they pour a glass of wine, pull up the garden chairs, and admire my weaving skills. Sometimes, the blonde lady even takes pictures of me and my works of art.

Although, I don’t write messages like “Some Pig,” into my masterpieces, I must confess that I do feel like my webs are feats of engineering marvels. We Orb Weavers have to begin with a leap of faith, literally, when we float on the wind from a single silken tether and, at the height of the swing, reach for another anchor to hold things down while we work. Then, we return to the center and drop another line (it sort of looks like a Y). It’s like building a loom.

Once our cross-tethers are in place, we begin to go round and round, using one back leg to attach the cords at each intersection of the radiating arms of the web-in-process.

It’s a bit of an arduous process. Once the whole structure is complete, I go back over it and coat it with a sticky layer.

I think our webs look particularly pretty in the morning, when they are covered with tiny diamond dewdrops.

This one (above) was made by my mother, Carlotta. She is the grande dame of our garden.

And these are my sisters: Charlene, Carla, Eunice and Angelica.

We feel lucky to live here because the humans never try to destroy our webs or to hurt us. They know that we have a very important job to do and that we are harmless to them. My humans are quite grateful for our mosquito-catching skills. We eat other bugs too. But, the humans seem to be really happy when we catch those mosquitos, so I put extra effort into my attempts.

Sometimes, the wind blows really hard in Southern California in October and our webs get tattered. The blonde lady calls them the Santa Anas, or sometimes, the Devil Winds. Then, we have to hide out a bit and wait until it’s a little calmer.

We are very tidy girls. We don’t like messy webs at all. Sometimes, we start over every day with a brand new one.

These are my kitty friends. I like them very much. They love to climb trees. Sometimes, the little one called Freyja climbs the Giant Bird of Paradise to which my web is tethered. She bounces things around a bit, but I like her company.

I hope you enjoyed my story. Please be kind to any relatives of mine who might be living in your yards. We work really hard to do our part in the ecosystem and to keep things in balance.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter.ph