"O, what a tangled web we weave, / When first we practise to deceive!"
Outside our house in the corners, Spiders are busy weaving webs for the purpose of entangling prey. Someplace in the dark recesses of my fading memory comes the note that a strand of spider's silk is stronger than steel of the same weight. I often wonder how Spiders start these complicated constructions and finally, I think I have an answer -- they float their first sticky strand out on the breeze towards the desired anchor bush/window/gutter and when it attaches they walk across it carefully and attach more and more strands until the web is finally complete.
The Spider then retreats to an inconspicuous corner and waits. They patiently wait with his (or her) foot on a test strand of the web to detect the vibration of a hapless, struggling insect that has flown into the gossamer contraption -- Dinner is served!
A Spider's Web, however, can be a danger to the Spider, for the sticky strands that hold the insect ... can also hold the web's builder/host. The Spider must show restraint and care as it moves forward towards its main course or else it could become a victim of its own making.
There is a moral or lesson in here someplace, but, instead, I would rather remember my Grandmother, Flossie Rickey Giles, who upon seeing the first Spider's web of August, would always smile and say "It must be time for school to start soon."
As a kid, her smile always struck me as odd, since school didn't sound like so much fun in the bright sun of August. As a parent, I began to understand -- and smile, myself, when I saw The First Spider's Web of August. Please follow the link below, so that you can smile also.
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