Webs & Water

As I walked Keats to school the other day, we noticed a group of girls standing next to a tree, staring at something in the tree, and exclaiming words like "jewels" and "diamonds" so we decided to investigate. We found what did indeed look to be jewels: thick dewdrops had outlined spiderwebs in some evergreens on the path to the school.

Don't get me wrong...I don't like spiders. At all. As a matter of fact, I'm trying not to picture one in my head right now because I will then have to check my entire body to make sure one is not climbing on me. Euw. Double euw.

What I do like, however, is nature!! Plus, I have boys to raise. I can't be grossed out by spiderwebs, even if they DO happen to be occupied at the time. I decided that after school the boys and I would take a nature trek and observe all-things-spidery....and all-things-wet. ;o)

The following pics are what we saw on our walkabout:

This is our very own maple tree...I think it is a Sugar Maple??...and I love watching it change with the seasons. It was also just a couple of feet tall when we moved in and now it looks more like a teenager...so it is neat to watch.

I couldn't get a great shot of this web but here are two attempts. They are both from a web in our own Japanese Maple out front. I made the top B&W in an attempt to make the water drops show up better; below I left "as-is" in case that way is easier on your eyes.

These water drops were on a bush along the path to the school. The bush is not very interesting in & of itself...and I have no idea what it is...but the water drops looked awesome on it. I changed a different shot to B&W below...

Okay, if you are like me, you will want to scroll quickly past these spider pics. I am, however, cruel and decided to put these words in the middle of the pics so you have to stop & look!! If you can get past the ickiness...enlarge the photos! I was able to catch this guy actually spinning his web...you can see him pull the web from his, um, web-making-area?? lol...and uses one of his legs to put it in place. Awesome!!!

Just neato water drops on some webs above.

Above was actually a strange, thick web on the ground. It was totally covered with the water drops, which caught my eye.

Colors like the above pink, along with the perfect water drops, make me wish Santa would bring me a camera with a killer zoom! But I did what I could with what I have. ;o)

Above is just some sort of grass that someone is growing in their flowerbed for kicks. So I took pics of it just for kicks.

What better way to top off a tour of spider webs than to come home and make our own! I put some simple brads into black cardstock and had the guys wrap embroidery thread around them to make their webs. When they were done with the web we added some "dew drops" with tiny silver beads and glue. The final shot shows Sullivan's finished product once he put on a couple of spiders. Keaton is still working on his spiders and his project is Top Secret so I don't have a photo of his yet. To be continued....