I have things I should be doing.

I am dividing my time between work, errands, cleaning, internet-ing, eating, and sleeping. Aside from all that and other social obligations, I can't seem to find enough extra minutes outside while it is still light out to work in my garden. Clean things up. Do some rearranging. Root up dead plants. (Maybe I killed them, and maybe it was natural causes...) I refuse to do any of this in the guise of night while the spiders are spinning their webs and the praying mantis are eating worms.

I am not afraid of the mantis, but I would certainly hate to be in the way of him and a fat juicy worm! I've seen it in full action, from the plucking out of the dirt to the last dripping kibble. Ew. I have a tiny bit of it recorded.


The spiders scare me. They are big, bulbous, spikey-legged, creepy yellow and black, and they spin this intimidating zig zag on their webs. When something has landed or agitated their web they profusely shake it to entangle it even more. I have witnessed one spider catch a bumble bee and a fly at the same time and do some serious damage to both almost simultaneously. There are enough of these spiders in my garden, that I am certain if they had larger brains, or not enough bugs to eat, then they would realize strength in numbers and would capture me effortlessly. I think they might especially have it out for me if they realized I was the one flicking them off their webs with a long bamboo pole. (I was not doing this maliciously, I just needed to get to my tomatoes and they were blocking me.)