Our very own Charlotte's Web

Last year we had the most amazing spider visit our backyard.  On day as I went outside, just as the sun started to go down, I saw a spider hanging from her web off of one of the limbs of our huge oak tree.  I found this curious since it was a rather long drop from the tree limb.  I just thought she was an interesting spider and didn't think much of her until I went back out again one hour later.  I was shocked to find that this spider had created the biggest spider web I had ever seen!  It was so detailed!   I stood in amazement at how this reletively small spider could create such a beautiful web.

I got to watch her every night and see first-hand how she assembled her web.  She would start with the radial lines which she attached  to the lowest tree limb which is about 10 ft. high to the grass on the ground!   She would then  proceed to work on the circular part of the web. In the morning it was all taken down, no evidence of it ever being up.  I couldn't figure out what she did with her web, but it would all be gone.  In the evening she would start on it once again.  

Every night we would go out and watch her make her trap.  When she was done, she granted us the privilege of seeing, first-hand, this masterpiece.  We all stood in awe at the beauty of it! After a week of this we never saw her again.  I guess she thought we had seen enough or she just simply got tired of us watching her.

I wanted to share these pictures in honor of our finishing up our "free reading" of Charlotte's Web.  I actually had forgotten all about this, until one of the kids recently reminded me of our own Charlotte that had gifted us with her own masterpiece of web art.  I like to call it "What a website!"