Dear Reader:

Has anybody else, besides me, suddenly realized that outside yard/garden work is turning into the same dull routine as dreaded housework these days? I used to always say that I loved cutting the grass, pruning, picking up debris, whatever in the yard and garden, because it lasted about two weeks and gave you back such a great feeling of satisfaction and pride. Whereas housework lasted only about two days, if you were lucky, and dust settled back in hours after you left the end tables and mirrors shiny clear. Ugh!

Sadly, this axiom no longer holds true. Every single day now, since Matthew left his calling card, I walk outside and more branches are down, more dead leaves have fallen, pine sprigs are everywhere, and don’t get me started on pine cones! My back takes one look and starts to “spasm” out on me. Oh no! Not again. I just raked yesterday!!!

My pile of debris on the street is growing in quantum leaps…the longer it takes the trucks to pick up…the higher my pile is getting. I feel sure this is true of most of my neighbors…that is one job I would not want right now…definitely!

When I walked outside, rather early yesterday morning, I thought I would water the mums since they seem to stay thirsty and maybe prune a little but that should do it. At first glance the garden looked “innocently” benign as it greeted me.

I was so proud of myself for working hard Monday… picking up more leaves and pine cones and taking them to the street in several wheelbarrow turns. But then it happened…the first of three such incidents. I reached between two bushes to turn on an outside spigot and (without any warning) my face was covered with a spider web! Horror upon horrors!

This is what I felt like I was entangled in….and this next “live” photo shows what the web looked like in actuality…but please remember I already had part of it attached to my face, hair, and neck. (Believe me that one strand left was just a memoir of the stringed webs on me)

Interestingly enough I am not an arachnophobiac…I really am not. If I see a spider crawling around I can smash it without a second thought. But a spider web? Now that is an entirely different red flag for me in the fear category of my life.

I am getting “creeped out” just typing about what happened earlier in the garden. It took me a few minutes to get over the first sensation of a spider web on me, especially my face. But I finally did and went into my potting shed to get another style rake that can hold more pine straw and pine cones than the one I was using.

I picked it up, without a glance, took it to the garden, and was just about to rake my first pile of debris when I felt something and looked down on my left arm…a spider was running up it with part of the torn web still stuck to it. Now I really thought I was going to lose it with spider horror number two. I threw down the rake, ran back to the spigot (while checking it out thoroughly this time) and washed my arm in cool water…getting rid of the spider and web. From a distance I could still see part of the web dangling from the rake. Gross!

I went back in the house, consoled myself with a left-over blueberry muffin from breakfast and watched television for about an hour to calm my nerves. While I watched some “quite forgettable” television show… my intellectual mind was trying to restore reason to my emotional havoc.

What was it that frightened me so with spiders and their webs. I finally decided it was (1) unexpected….never like being caught off-guard and 2) the feeling sensation of something on my skin that left my hairs standing on end.

Surely it must have started in childhood with too many campfire “spider in the hair” stories and B Rated horror show movies that I could afford to buy a ticket with….along with my friends. Yes, the idea of spiders hatching babies in your hair, on your face, or anywhere else for that matter is a tough pop culture myth to eliminate from our psyche.

After resting and munching awhile longer I decided I would at least try to salvage the morning and accomplish one thing in the garden…I would clean out all the leaves and tiny broken branches that had fallen in the water fountain.

So I had gotten about as many leaves out of the bottom of the fountain as I could when I started watering the fountain out with a hose and poured a little chlorox in it to help disinfect it.

As I bent down to wash out the underside of the fountain I saw a black spider crawl out from under and cross the top of the fountain. Upon closer inspection underneath I could tell where she had been hiding. I took this as a sign from the universe that I was not supposed to work in the garden yesterday….I threw the hose down, turned off the spigot and treated myself to a lovely late morning nap!

Later after lunch, when I started feeling a little foolish for all my jumping, hopping and screaming antics in the garden earlier,  I looked up garden spiders and most of them are considered “good” or “beneficial” spiders because they eat bugs that eat garden plants and blooms.

I would be the first to sign an armistice if they would just agree to do one thing….Make a big sign warning me where all their webs are so I don’t go charging into them  unknowingly. It is a simple enough request…don’t you think?

So until tomorrow….Grab the book Charlotte’s Web and say Charlotte five times before screaming and hopping around after an unexpected spider web dousing.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The only kind of spider web that I want to come into contact with….is this creative art work using a webbed design for the wall.

*Delights of the Day extend into Surprises of the Sunset. I got home from the grocery story around 7:00 last evening and my newly placed BOO sign was lit and shining. Then in the backyard a lantern was casting its glow on the latest moon flower bloom. Beautiful!