On Saturday some fog rolled up the hill and engulfed the whole area in front of our apartment temporarily.
Here’s a photo before the fog got all the way up to the door:
Fog coming in, View from vacation apartment, Tübingen
And here’s another one as the fog started to lift over the valley. About 5 minutes after I snapped that photo, the fog was pretty much all gone.
Fog going out, View from vacation apartment, Tübingen
As we set off to head down our 59 steps after the fog had lifted, we were confronted by a striking tableau: the bushes on either side of the path at the top of the stairs were covered in patches of spider webs. And one of the largest spider webs I’ve ever seen actually had been constructed across the path:
Spiderwebs
Giant spider-web closeup
Looking through the spiderweb to the house
For that last shot, I carefully ducked under one side to get the view of the web from the other side. The things I do for my art. 😉 Chris actually disconnected the web from one of the bushes, and carefully moved it from one side to the other so we could more easily get in and out without getting tangled in the web.
The next day there again was a huge web blocking our path. This time, the medium-sized “artist” was actually sitting in the middle of her creation. Not tarantula-sized, but large enough for me. Since we needed to get to an appointment, there was no time to snap a photo; Chris just bravely moved the web and its creator over to one side, and we quickly scrambled past.
Since then, one more web has appeared across the path, but it was a rather half-hearted effort, not up to the standards of the previous two. I think the Michelangelo of the spider world must have moved on to seek a more art-friendly environment in which to spin her webs.
*****
P.S. BTW, with apologies to Carl Sandberg; the quote is more properly,
The fog creeps in on little cat feet
However, it wasn’t cat prints blocking our path after the fog. I’m just saying.
I meant to tell you I love the picture. I am partial to shadows. Great choice.
Was the web spinner a garden spider. I remember seeing one on the farm in the morning with due dropplets on it. the sun was shinning through and it created little rainbows in the droplets. I really was in awe and recall that visual a lot. Hope you can capture something like that even if you have to shine a flashlight on it.
Thans, Kathy, glad you like the shadow photo – I always love it when Chris does that kind of photo. 🙂 Re the spider, it was in a garden, does that make it a garden spider? I’ll have to see what I can do to catch the light in the webs (we continue to see them in the morning, although definitely not quite as spectacular as the one in the photos in this post). But I like your ideas for a photo shoot with one.
Where was CC when we needed him in MLB?!
There are many spiders called garden spiders I guess because they like to be in the garden. I went on wiki to see about garden spiders in Germany and found a site for NW Europe too. Lots of them to see. here’s the website http://ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/Spiders/spidhome.htm and there is this animated spider that runs from the right to the left on the page…it made the hair stand up on my neck, but I dealt with it. I am not afraid of spiders. Just respect that some can be very nasty to us. I think we had black widows in the basement of the farm once. There is a look alike spider that is not dangerous. I hope you can take some interesting pictures. I really like the ones you took because the web is so vivid. Spray water and try to get a rainbow. If Chris can move the webs then I guess you can create the weather around them. Have a great morning as I think it is time for that where you are.
My grandson Silas and I call these “September spiders” as they seem to make huge webs here at this time of year. I had no idea it was possible to move them without breaking them!
The spider webs are beautiful and it reminds me of one you took in Vancouver on one of our walks across town.