"Every small town has at least one house the children whisper about; the type of house that has always been abandoned; where once pristine white paint has faded to a grimy gray; where the windows are boarded, and the lawn never grows; where children hold their breath and close their eyes as they pass by. A house that sounds like it contains an army of whispering spirits when the wind whistles through the nearby trees."
~The Blood Brothers
The House On Creep Street
Yesterday, after all my doctor appointments and medical tests, I treated myself to a trip to Cull Canyon, to see how my favorite autumn tree was progressing. It's coming along nicely, but perhaps a little too fast with the color. I don't want to lose the colors too early in the season, and yet at the same time, we are due for a cold wet autumn and winter, if the Farmer's Almanac is correct, so time to get out there and get things done!
While I was photographing some newly fallen color, I spotted the remains of what was once, last summer, a nice patch of Butterfly Weed. I love it! It's great for attracting hummingbirds, and butterflies, and on it's own, has always reminded me even on the hottest of summer days, that autumn was just around the corner! It has a brief summer life, and just happens to be all the lovely colors of autumn.
This patch was dead and dying, evident by the huge amount of spider webbing covering almost everything! Mums, the Butterfly Weed, some showy yellow flowers, and some gorgeous leaves that drifted into the spider's home! Well, actually, it had to have been a lot of spiders, a group or condominium of spiders, and not just one, because of the amount of webbing around, otherwise it would have been a spider the size of... well... I don't to think about the size it would have to have been!
Anyway, it seemed as if the web was, at this point, more haunted house, than actually a current residence! I spotted a small spider within all the chaos of the web rooms, along with what appeared to be both victims and squatters! Aphids. Gnats. Small moths. Small black bugs that may or may not have been tiny beetles. A ladybug or two, feasting on the aphids. It was quite the horror show! A true haunted house!
I have become very interested in spider webs in the last couple years, both occupied and abandoned! I am scared to death of spiders, that fact is pretty well known amongst my friends, but last year I found myself photographing a bunch of colorful leaves that had collected in the home of a particularly wily white spider! I kept a nice distance, thank god for cameras with long lenses, but I was kinda hooked from then on. Yesterday, I captured two different haunted spider houses, this set is the first, and I will post the second later in the week.
Can you spot the spider?
Just click on the photo to enlarge it!
#4 Leaf Of The Day
September 23rd, 2018
Stockton, California
~Mood: Tired/Creative
~Me :)
