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Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday - Spider, Spider Reprise

Click here for a link to the upcycled spider necklace in my Etsy shop. ;0)

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers! Many thanks to all for the kind comments, thoughts & prayers in recent weeks as our region (and our family) has been dealing with hurricanes.  We got internet back last Friday evening, and Seth and Ginnie (Asheville area) got power back on then as well. They're still waiting on internet and well water testing, but they have running water to use for everything but drinking. My Florida family is cleaning up from Milton, but everyone is safe and well.  My brother Mike and his partner Scott in St. Pete went to a hotel there at a higher elevation; with 100 mph winds, not only did the power go out as expected, but water blew in their room through the AC and window seals, soaking the carpet, the wind blew the lobby doors in, and at around 1 a.m., a piece of roof was banging against their window.  But they're okay! Please continue to send good thoughts for those who are grieving and for so many who have lost their homes and businesses.  It's going to be a long road.

 

This month, I got another FaceTime from the wee laddie (our two year-old grandson) with a fun surprise from their mailbox (second time this has happened!).  Highlights HELLO reprinted another one of my poems, this one from six years ago.  Many of you have seen it, but since they reprinted it, I will too!

 

 

 Spider, Spider

 

    by Robyn Hood Black

 

 

   Spider, spider,

   Weave and spin

   Down, around,

   And up again

 

   Spider, spider,

   Time to rest

   in your round

   And webby nest.

 

©Highlights for Children

 

Maria Neradova illustrated the poem. 

 

I wrote this poem about a golden orb weaver who graced the outside of our kitchen window in Beaufort.  We have various orb weavers here in the mountains (& they built webs much earlier than usual this year).  But I haven't seen my "traditional" golden orb weavers this fall, with their gilded webs. You know what I'm finally seeing in abundance? Joro spiders.  They arrived in this part of the country from Asia about a decade ago. They are large and their webs are large!  There is some concern that the joros are displacing native spiders; studies are ongoing, I believe.  Do you have them where you live?  I think they've been making their way up the East Coast.

 

As far as comparing these two weavers of the woods, here's an article from last year discussing their attributes. And while my daughter Morgan was brave enough to take a photo of the HELLO spread, she'd just as soon not run into any REAL spiders, thank you.  I, on the other hand, find them fascinating and am a spider relocator when they insist on making webs at eye level in the back (or front!) door jambs.  (They can be territorial, though, and often come right back.)  And even though these two types of spiders might give you a Halloween fright, they're not harmful to humans. 

 

I also dropped in a little insert of a Halloween-y necklace I've just listed on Etsy. I happened upon some fun random spider web designs in the endpapers of a 1927 educational book, and, well, I couldn't help myself. 

 

Matt is awfully busy this month with MANY new books and such at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme, but he's kindly hosting the Roundup this week - Many Thanks, Matt!

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