Araneus Alsine - found this big girl in my garden yesterday. She’s about the size of a quarter. I haven’t learned much about her other than she’s a strawberry spider and from what I can tell, her usual habitat is the British Isles.
She’s very pretty. I hope she buries an egg sac somewhere on our property. I’ve never seen a spider like her, although we do have an unusually high number of orb spiders in our yard this year.
Oh…the RV. The trip home was less eventful than the trip out. We spent two nights on the road, picking our camping sites with care this time. We stayed one night on the Snake River in Idaho, and one night in the high desert in Nevada. Both quiet, clean places with lots of open space for Jake. We took the route the GPS had warned us against using - through Yellowstone. I drove in rain, sleet and snow on an isolated two-lane road running through the middle of the most amazing country. It was perfect. My kinda road. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any bears, bighorn sheep, elk or bison. The weather was far too foul and they know enough to stay out of sight. We cooked two dinners and two breakfasts and we had fun.
Here’s what I miss, aside from the big sky.
Empty freeways.
Polite people.
The milk cow, sweet Dolly, who gives the best milk I’ve ever tasted.
Playing Pitch, my new favorite card game, while drinking a nice Souverain.
The luxury of leaving every door to everything unlocked.
No seat belts necessary on the ranch.
Fresh eggs from the neighbor’s chickens.
Honey from the ranch’s bees.
Whipping up your own hamburger buns because you can’t make the two-hour round trip to the closest market just to pick up one thing.
The smell of horses.
No fields of foxtails to burrow beneath my dog’s skin.
Watching an excited herd of cattle run to a fresh salt lick, wearing the same expression as little kids running to a big bowl of ice cream.
The antelope, deer, elk and moose mingling with the cattle, ‘cuz to them it ain’t no big thing.
The blanket of stars overhead at night.
The howl of a wolf in the deep dark.
These are the things I miss already.
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Yikes, I wish I could just leave a spider in my garden without worrying about it. So many in Australia are poisonous. And snakes, yeah… The cats brought three in the house. Fortunately none of them were poisonous either.
We missed Scotland a week after we got home. Beats me why, it rained the whole time we were there. It just… felt like home.
I’m sorry I couldn’t have the spider in my garden either. Yikes.
Heavenly is all I think when you describe your trip. It’s wonderful you have somewhere gorgoeous to vacation.
How’s Jake?
What a wonderful trip! The good and the bad….gotta take it all.
That spider is amazingly cool…I love it!
Gorgeous pic of the spider, Julia. I’m an arachnophile (much to the Old Man’s dismay).
Wow, that ranch sounds like heaven. I’m closing my eyes and enjoying your adventure vicariously.
I’ve never seen a strawberry spider, she’s beautiful!
Your days on the ranch sound amazing.
XXOO Kat
Oh Kat, she is lovely and the ranch is amazing.
Jaye, I am a fearful arachnophile. Both love and fear spiders. I keep them around, will never kill them, love to have them in my yard, but I don’t want them in my bed. However, spiders get a free pass from me - if they show up in my house I scoop them up and put them in a tree or leave them in the garden.
Yup Penny. The good and the bad. All in all mostly good.
Oh Amber, I think you’d leave her alone. She seems pretty shy to me.
If I was in Australia, Ciara, I’d be freaking out about spiders and snakes. I’ve heard how many are poisonous. That one giant spider you have? Can’t remember what it’s called…yikes!
Beautiful spider. I’m not afraid of them either and rescue them whenever I can (although I would be if I lived in Oz). I hope some day I will hear a wild wolf howl at the moon. Thanks for including us in your trip!
Anytime, Casey! I may write a spider story. She is really cute and I can’t often describe spiders as ‘cute’.
Wow, Julia! Sounds like you had a fantastic time creating lovely memories. And the spider is a beauty. I’m totally girly-scared of spiders if they surprise me (or if they are on me - ICK), but I appreciate them for many reasons and make sure to scoot them out of the house, not kill them. Yours is truly gorgeous. Being a Florida gal, the two poisonous ones we have to worry about - the black widow and brown recluse - are small and like to hide, so the ones I see most, the jumpers (can’t remember their name) and the banana spiders are always welcome on my porch and around my teeny yard area, but neither are as striking as that one.
I just have one question about your trip, though…were their any seating assignments designated by colored napkins this time??
Tracy - LMAO! No color-coded napkin seating chart! Thank god! We had a brown recluse in our house once - ugliest spider I ever saw. Ugly. We have the occasional black widow outdoors. I’m not fond of them, but not as frightened of them as I used to be.
Your trip sounds amazing. And pitch … I LOVE that game. It’s one of my family’s favorite evening activities when we’re hanging together. Sooooo much fun! The RV trip sounds like quite an adventure. Glad you enjoyed it most of the time.
The trip was great, Nina. I love Pitch. I’d never played before.
I’m not a spider girl but that’ s a beautiful pic.
Glad you had such a good time, Ms. Julia.
She is a nice spider, Sandra!