Black and Yellow Writing Spider
Yesterday morning on the front porch in the shade, the day felt more gentle than the past week or more. Still hot and sunny, with blue sky and white clouds, but a lazier, more peaceful and pleasant feeling in the air. Cicadas sang, Mourning Doves cooed, Carolina Wrens trilled and fussed, and Chickadees and Titmice chattered as they came and went. American Goldfinches flew over again and again, calling their potato-chip call, and sometimes perched in the treetops and mewed or sang. Goldfinches seem to be almost everywhere right now, all through the neighborhood, brilliant little golden flashes of color.
Earlier in the morning, when we were cleaning up the area around the garden, I found a big yellow and black writing spider on the mesh of a soil-sifting box – the first one I’ve seen in quite a while. Officially Argiope aurantia, it’s a large, dramatically-colored spider with long black legs extended in the shape of a cross. It weaves an orb web, and across its center spins a thick zig-zag pattern that looks like writing. It’s a familiar spider commonly found in gardens, and sometimes we’ve had one spin a web across a window where it’s fascinating to watch for several days.
Lots of bumblebees and butterflies hovered in and out of the Rose of Sharon blooms on plants that have grown lush and tall against the warm brick on the east side of the house. These are some of my favorite flowers of summer, deep pink and pale pink, with accents of red, with a sensuous, languid, abundant beauty. A Hairy Woodpecker called peenk! emphatically from the woods, and I could hear its industrious tapping on a trunk.