SPIDER!
When I got home tonight, I thought I’d check on my veggie patch. So I stepped out the backdoor and, la-di-da, nearly walked headfirst INTO THIS.
The massive web spans from the lilli pilli tree across the path, and Mr. Spider is sitting directly at face height. His body is over an inch long, easy. As I stood frozen and time slowed to a crawl, I was able to see that he was merrily cocooning some unfortunate insect (a bumblebee? a cockroach?) to save for dinner. I slowly backed into the house and grabbed my camera. I got as close as I dared to get the shot, then scampered back in to google spider identification charts. Mr. Spider looked kinda hairy, so my first guess was that he was a Huntsman. (They look evil but aren’t, really.) But I quickly discovered that HUNTSMAN SPIDERS DON’T MAKE WEBS! So I tweeted for help, and luckily Issy came to my rescue. It’s a Garden Orb Weaving Spider. Oh, and judging by the size he’s probably actually a she. I’m going to call her Shelob. She’ll be there until the Snook gets home and prods her with a stick, I imagine.