Lurking in the blueberries

They're finally ripening! It seems to take forever.

Slowly making the transition. They start out pale green, then pink, then a light purple, and finally the blue/purple that tells us they're ready.

Black and yellow garden spider, species name Argiope Aurantia. This girl is a big one - her body about an inch to an inch and a half long. She has a huge web spun between two of our blueberry bushes.

A lot of people are afraid of spiders, but as long as they're not in my hair or about to crawl on me, I'm fine with them. Living in the woods as we do, we have a lot of spiders around us. Unless they get in the house, or are poisonous (like a brown recluse or black widow), we leave them alone. They do a lot of good - and surprisingly enough, we've only had a couple of small ones get in the house since it was finished a year and a half ago.

One thing I'm not crazy about, though, is walking through a web. Spiders sometimes like to build webs on our back deck overnight, and I usually remember to sweep them away before walking between furniture. I occasionally forget, and that's when I get the creepy-crawlies. :)