perfect beauty...

I watched an ambitious little spider spinning her web this morning.

My computer desk looks out our sliding glass doors toward the trees just beyond our balcony. A tiny bright flash in the trees caught my eye. It was the sun hitting this pretty little spider.
(For the record, if this spider had been, say, on my arm or something.... she would be described very differently...)

I noticed that the 'gye' wires, the main web strands, were strung between two trees, so it was probably at least 12 or 15 feet across. But she was concentrating on the detailed center portion which appeared to be only about a foot across.

This little dear very carefully attached the outer perimeter threads, and then began the delicate work of going back and forth to the center to attach the 'rays' of thread to the outer ring. As the sun continued to turn her work to bright strands of liquid silver, she moved with the precision of an expert, one who clearly knows and understands her craft. One at a time, each ray was carefully placed at even intervals. Then she began the dizzying, round and round work of adding all the 'ladder rungs' that truely make a spiders web spectacular.

I watched until the sun moved enoughed that it no longer fell across her work, at which time, the little spider and her web both dissappeared from my view. But I'm sure she's finished by now, and is patiently waiting for breakfast, perhaps a nice juicy moth, to make its appearance in her web.