Itsy Bitsy Spider

Yesterday morning while eating my breakfast the house phone rang. It was Angela asking if I was already dressed because if so, I needed to come over immediately. "Something miraculous is going on in our backyard!" she explained. I'll be there the minute I finish my peanut butter English muffin with Baxter in tow.

She was indeed right--a miraculous sight awaited. Before I began taking photographs in earnest, I took many, many things for granted. The absolute simple wonders of nature mostly escaped me. Now, on the other hand, I can't get enough of them. Including watching a spider build it's web in the bright sunshine.

When I arrived a few minutes later the spider was busy, busy, busy. The web looked like this:

Extraordinary right? The web itself is amazing in itself, but being able to see the guide wires if you will was phenomenal. If only I'd had my lens. I really needed a polarizing filter which acts like sunglasses for your lens because I was shooting into the sun big time. Unfortunately I still had Roger's lens which was much larger than mine. You do what you can!

These are super tiny spiders; despite looking online I can't find the name of this type. The speed with which the spider worked and the intricacy of the web had us watching in fascination.

By the time I took Baxter back across the street, the spider nearly had the web complete, all in what we think was the span of about an hour.

Earlier this morning before leaving for bridge I had a blog post in mind with the spider web only a part of it. Running errands took up much of my afternoon and when I did get home I saw there was a phone message.

Many of you may not know the story because you are new to Camera Crazy; those of you not so new may need a little refresher. It turns out it was 20 months ago that my dear friend and neighbor Regina called in tears to tell me her 42 year old daughter, a marathon runner and health enthusiast, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Lately, in this little web spot you've not heard much about Regina because she's mostly been laying low. That said, every now and again I'd talk to her about all the various treatments and clinical trials Kate was going through.Up and down their hopes went. Eight different types of chemotherapy and it all comes down to this: she died last night in her own bed with family surrounding her. Naturally Regina is devastated even though privately we had talked about the likelihood of Kate recovering.

After our conversation it occurred to me that life is like that spider web. Layer upon layer of people who we can't do without. We have the foundation people in our lives, parents and grandparents, those kind. Our husbands, wives and lovers are next. Family, as in children, siblings,  aunts, uncles, and cousins. Classmates, co-workers, neighbors, close friends, casual friends and acquaintances all make up our lives--each one a different layer but all part of the whole. All important.

I may not be explaining myself very well. Maybe it's because I'm so sad for Regina, but I do think things happen for a reason. Matt, Angela's husband seeing the web, showing Angela, she calls me and we marvel together. Let's all marvel together shall we?

with a heavy heart,
Gail

p.s. When I saw this piece on Young Photographers it reminded me of myself. Obviously, not the young part!