Two new sets of neighbors have moved in, both with kitties, so occasionally I see a furry feline curled up on the rattan sofa I have on my porch. (If you're wondering what my porch looks like, peek here. It's a picture from last spring so some of the plants are different - as is the door decoration - but it's close enough.)

Besides kitties, a *gorgeous* spider has made this area her home for about a month now. She's an "orb-weaving" type of spider - the kind that makes those lovely, ornate circular webs. This particular one is a yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia. She's also known as the "writing spider" since she makes a zig-zag pattern down the center of the web.

Here's a couple of pictures of this kind of spider:
pic 1
pic 2

She's been keeping the porch pretty clear of moths and other bugs for quite some time now. I've seen her re-weaving her web in the morning (it's fascinating watching her pull the silk with her legs and attach it) and then in the evening watch her catch something and roll it up in the silk. By late evening her web is looking pretty tattered and she has to go and re-weave it again in the morning. It's also been interesting to see when she's startled - she bounces up and down rapidly on her web to set it vibrating, I guess to scare predators away.

Sadly, she may be gone soon. She was off her web for almost a day and a half just recently - and I spotted her up in a little corner of the roof, laying an egg sac. This morning she's back on her web, but she'll probably die soon. The eggs will hatch this fall, but the babies will stay inside until the sac until Spring.

And just this morning I found saw a green snake in the tree near my porch! I think it's a garden or grass snake, but I was surprised to see one in the *tree*. It was about medium sized and I wouldn't have noticed it if it hadn't been moving.

Besides these guys, over the past three years I've come face-to-face with a possum on my back porch, and deer running between the buildings.

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