Wordless Wednesday

My ONLY houseplant... a gift for our new home.

 

Savoring the last bloom!

With a Grain of Salt…

It is amazing to see how fast the New Hampshire roads are cleared after a snow storm. Like a scene from a WWII movie, the army is mobilized and brigades of snow plows march across the land in combat against the advance of the enemy.  Their weapons drawn, the plows storm the terrain throwing snow off to ditches. The second weapon follows behind the plows. That is heaps of Na+Cl, good old sodium chloride or better know as rock salt. A little known fact is the state of New Hampshire was the first state to use salt on winter roadways, according to the National Research Council, and they’re darn good at it.

Of course, we had salt trucks in Virginia but, living in a rural area, I rarely saw them. Secondary roads suffered the slow melt and only the hearty residents managed to escape by road. It’s different on the roads of New Hampshire where snow disappears from most roads.

Well, where do our troops obtain this weapon for road warfare? Amazingly, it’s in Portsmouth. It’s hard to miss what is nicknamed the ‘White Mountains of Portsmouth.’ What I first thought was sand is salt,  massive piles of salt at the edge of the Piscataqua River. Once up to 70′ high, piles are mandated to be closer to 34′ after a huge collapse in 2008 that damaged a nearby saltwater pond. The salt pile area has since been stabilized and the pond restored.

Last week I watched a foreign freighter, pushed and nudged by two black and red tugboats up the river that separates New Hampshire from Maine. While I dined nearby, we were entertained by the tugs jostling the freighter into position alongside the piles where people threw out heavy lines to secure the ship.

We learned from the proprietor of the restaurant that the salt is transported to Portsmouth and other Atlantic ports from salt flats in South America. Seems it’s cheaper to transport by ship from Chile and other parts of the world than transport by rail from the American West. Local folks seem proud of the salt piles as amazing landmarks of Portsmouth.

Salar de Atacama is the largest salt flat in Chile.

It’s hard not to be awed by the mountains of salt…. but my thoughts drift toward the environment. How the heck does the company prevent the Piscataqua River or even storm drains from becoming the ultimate destination of saline runoff.  And where the heck does the salt dust go in a wind storm? If a percentage does not end up in the river, it is an remarkable engineering achievement. I do want to know more….

Top Ten Ways to Survive…

… a New England winter, especially if you’re a Southern transplant. I hear from friends in Virginia who say they’re still raking leaves in their yards. Our leaves in New Hampshire are hidden under 6″ of snow and ice. It seems the weatherman predicts Wintry Weather every other day around here. That means a little snow, rain, and sleet all at once combined with cold and blustery wind gusts. With these meteorological conditions, it’s easy to catch the dreaded Cabin Fever.  Some of our new acquaintances have kindly suggested a few of their favorite pastimes to get us out of the house.

10. Learn to ice skate on the pond out back. Not a chance.

9. Take up downhill skiing. Our bones are too brittle.

8. Snowmobiling. Well, maybe….

7. Snowshoeing. This looks favorable. We see folks our age out there.

6. Jogging. Not on your life. Black ice is rampant.

5. Skijoring. Have you ever heard of it? Skijoring is Norwegian for ski driving and it’s really gaining in popularity. Think of it as a cross between dog mushing and cross-country skiing. But not for us. We don’t have a death wish.

New York Times Skijoring

4. Hockey games. OK, we did that and loved it. Take a look at this adorable mini-hockey entertainment during halftime:

3. Exploring the area. Yes! Especially in a warm automobile with a GPS. Suggestions are sounding better.

2. Shopping. Portsmouth’s Market Street, voted one of New England’s Best Shopping Streets by Travel and Leisure Magazine. Now we’re talking!

1. Eating Out. Eureka! Our #1 favorite winter pastime so far is checking out area restaurants. And I’m happy to say we’re getting quite skilled at it. Restaurants are plentiful and varied. We’re having a great time wading through menus in different hamlets. The added bonus is a bit of personal insulation around the waistline to keep us warmer when the Wintry Weather hits.

Wordless Wednesday

Winter Walk on the Beach

Let it snow!

White pines in snow

There is nothing more magical than waking to a blanket of snow from an overnight storm. I cracked open the door and listened. There was a sweet quietness as the snow covered every horizontal surface and muted all sound.

Snow is still falling this afternoon. Although we’re living in the north where no one seems intimidated by the white stuff, schools were delayed. I imagine kids must still in their pj’s sipping hot chocolate in front of a glowing, warm fire… or either next to the glow of a warm tv.  But this ‘kid’ and her dog ventured out into the storm of white.

Mattie loves a snowy day

Mattie loves a snowy day. She jumps. She runs. She eats snow. And she catches snowflakes on her tongue.

So do I…..  We love a snowy day!

Wordless Wednesday

Primary Day

Newspapers, radios, TVs, tweets, blogs, Facebook, debates, speeches, campaign signs, the press, the candidates with their support teams and a sundry of followers… You name it. We’ve seen a lot the last few days in New Hampshire.  The village of Dixville Notch opened the Primary at midnight with 9 votes and a tie between Romney and Huntsman.  mister gardener and I are trying to keep up with it all while dodging the hoopla when we can.

One tiny breakfast restaurant in Portsmouth, Colby’s Breakfast and Lunch, where my daughter and son-in-law regularly dine on weekends, simply felt the customers had enough from campaigners. In the window went a sign, “No Politicians, No Exceptions.”

Colby's Breakfast and Lunch

You certainly cannot tell these ‘Live Free or Die’ New Hampshire citizens what to do or how to think. They have a mind of their own and they do seem quite leery of  politicians and the government.  It’s our first time for the New Hampshire Primary and it’s been educational and fun. Wow!

Where’s the snow?

While the rest of the country seems to be setting high temperature records, New England is experiencing its fair share of warmer weather, too. Temperatures topped out in the upper 30′s today but not before a few snow flurries dusted the area overnight. mister gardener and I sat by the window with morning coffee watching the flakes dance and swirl against the pines. Then it ended and I was sad. I don’t want a blizzard, mind you, but bring on the snow. I love snow. I can’t wait until the skies cloud over and buckets of the white stuff fall from the heavens. I long to build a snowman. I have a yen to pelt mister gardener with  snowballs. I want to slide down our mini-hill out back. I want to catch snowflakes on my mittens.

By mid-day, our dusting had melted. The temperatures are hovering near 30˚ tonight with a warming trend in the forecast for next week. By Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary, we should be experiencing temperatures in the 40′s.  Sweater weather. With these temperatures, I might as well be working in the garden. So my concrete garden friends from Virginia were unboxed and found their special homes in the landscape today.

Tomorrow? I think I’ll plant some tulip and daffodil bulbs.

Wordless Wednesday

This is a true Wordless Wednesday as mister gardener and I work silently side by side unpacking a lifetime of miscellanea.

I’d read about them….

… but I’d never seen one. As I whizzed past New York City on the New Jersey Turnpike last week, I spied an unusual pine tree that towered over surrounding trees. I snatched my phone and snapped a couple of photographs so I could later identify this oddity When I was passing it, I noticed some peculiar objects tucked in the boughs. That’s when I realized I was seeing a cell tower disguised as a pine tree.

Monopine

Most concealed cell towers are on flagpoles, church steeples, grain silos, but increasingly there are cell towers disguised as monopines, monopalms, monocacti, or monocypress. To satiate our need for coverage for cell phones, texts or emails, wireless companies are fast increasing the numbers of these controversial towers. Making them blend naturally into the rural landscape must be their goal. Well, they missed the mark here.

Monopine

Some look natural but the one I saw must attract a great deal of attention. It was downright ugly. Like everyone, I’m happier with good phone service but these monotrees just seem so wrong… sort of like sticking plastic flowers in your garden.  If we want to end on a positive note, these trees will never need maintenance. They’ll never succumb to disease or drought and they’ll never need pruning or any fertilizing. And, lastly, they will keep folks happy by preventing more dropped cell phone calls.

To see some interesting concealed cell towers, check out Robert Voit’s photographic documentation of artificial cell tower trees in several countries.

Nature calls…

For the past several New Year’s Days in Virginia, I have been up before dawn, swaddling myself in layers of warmth and waterproofing, and heading out to meet fellow birders for the Christmas Bird Count. Our small legion of citizen scientists joined thousands of like-minded volunteers across America and Canada that count every bird they see or they hear in one day. This century old survey has helped scientists study the long term health of bird populations.

I had to break with this beloved tradition this year. We now live in New Hampshire where I am not yet associated with the local groups. I heard from birder friends in Ware Neck VA that the weather was balmy at 65˚ today for the count. I hope the day was enjoyable and the counts were high.

Chilly could describe the 45˚ temperatures in New Hampshire today. No birding this year but it was a good day for the great out of doors and getting in touch with nature. The milder weather attracted a large number of kayakers and spectators to the annual New Year’s Day Merrimack Valley Paddlers River Run, paddling the icy rapids of the Winnipesaukee River. Among those running the rapids was my son-in-law. Filmed by my daughter navigating Zippy’s Final Plunge, this might be called the wet, wild and wonderful way to bond with the natural world. I’m learning a lot about these New Englanders.

 

Google says it best…

Happy New Year!

Old Man Winter

December in New England was one of the warmest on record. Old Man Winter changed all that yesterday when temperatures dropped and howling wind gusts strong enough to knock you over greeted us upon arrival in New Hampshire. We arrived when darkness had fallen and awoke this morning 14˚ temperatures and 20 MPH gusts under beautiful, yet deceiving sunny skies.  Who would go out in this weather? New Englanders, that’s who…. and mister gardener who couldn’t find the coffee machine. Bundled up, he ventured out to find coffee and came back with Dunkin’ Donut java, only to discover they added cream and sugar. He drove back to the store. “I asked for regular,” he told them. “Well….” the lady said. “Regular around here means cream and sugar.” We’re learning!

New England residents seem to be immune to the bone chilling wind.  We’ve watched several joggers in wool hats and gloves breeze past like it was a balmy 60˚.  We see dog owners walking briskly along the road. Then our old dog, Mattie, staring out across the moor gave us the heads up to a little ice hockey game that was getting started.

Even though it was a warmer 20˚ outdoor by this time, it made me shiver to watch them.

Christmases Past

Christmas is here. It has arrived. If you visited us during the holiday season, Santa greeted you at the door but that’s where all signs of Christmas ended.  There are no holiday greens inside the house. As our household items are being carefully wrapped in paper and packed in boxes and our furnishings being loaded piece by piece on the moving van, it’s hard not to feel a sense of being way out of step this year. We visit friends whose mantles, doors, tables, trees are adorned with ornamentation and we return home to zero Christmas trimmings. We’re not sad about it but it’s a bit of a numbing feeling.

We’ve never been all about Invasion of the Christmas Lights or Celebrity Holiday Homes but we always have enough red and green in recognition of the season.

Meaningful handmade ornaments from friends and family have been used to trim our tree, a tree that had to be perfect in every way.  Now, for the first time in our lives, we have no Christmas tree. Ornaments are safely boxed and loaded on the moving van.

On Christmas Day, we will gather one last time with family before we head out of the state.  Instead of exchanging gifts this year, my siblings and I have donated to charities that are meaningful to us, an idea that puts a song in my heart.  And, due to the move, mister gardener and I have also decided to ‘skip’ gift exchanges this year, too.

However, I’ve been a pretty good girl this year.  So shhhhh….. I’m leaving a short list and two cookies next to the fireplace: wool socks, a heavy sweater, spikes for my boots, earmuffs or warm mittens. I think any of these are necessities to help prepare me for what might greet us in New Hampshire. Thanks Santa!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Holidays from Ware Neck, Virginia!

A Parting Gift for the Gardens….

Today I decided to break from the tedium of packing, sorting and purging. Our dog (yes, we are down to one dog. The grandchildren in Louisville took the younger… where she now sleeps in the master bedroom between the king and queen of the house.) and I paid a visit to the gardens on this chilly December day.

In my hand, I carried parting gifts for my flora. Plant labels. Each of my trees and shrubs have common and botanical names that are as familiar to me as my good friends’ names. But I must leave this landscape full of old garden companions. To introduce them to new caretakers, they now wear the “Hello, my name is….” labels for ease of introduction. If they want to know more about a certain plant, all the new curators need to do is google their names.

ilex x attenuata fosteri

Sciadopitys verticillata

Or perhaps the new homeowners will simply open the garden shed and read the wall. Yes, I saved labels and created encyclopedic walls of information on the plants I’ve purchased through the years.  Sigh……

Purge-atory!

We are down to the wire in organizing our household for a giant leap to life in New Hampshire and things aren’t going so well. First, there’s the little worry that we’re moving north when the New England weather is a bit unpredictable. I assured the moving company that the driveway will be clear of snow and ice… and I hope we can guarantee that.

But that’s not the big problem. The biggest headache comes with downsizing. mister gardener had no problem parting with material goods saved through the years. Purging the furniture was easy for me. I marked items we can’t take with green stickers and invited siblings to a gifting party. They came for two days and maybe a third day soon. mister gardener has visited DAV many times in the last couple of weeks. The local humane society will soon come for more furniture for an auction, the public library has dozens and dozens of our well-loved books and clothing wardrobes have been reduced. And it makes me happy to see the faces of the happy recipients.

It’s personal things that are giving me trouble. Am I an honest-to-goodness hoarder? You can’t see clutter when you walk in this home. All the cache is hidden neatly in closets and drawers, behind cupboards and well-organized in plastic containers. When I’ve watched the TV show, Buried Alive, I shake my head in disbelief at a homeowner’s inability to SEE the worthless piles of possessions.

But the emotions I have when having to let go of sentimental items connects me with those Buried Alive folks. Every personal item I handle evokes emotion. My solution is to purge in layers. The easy things go first. The things I must handle and say goodbye to go second. I’m on level 3 now. Personal possessions are in piles. I stare at them a lot. My childhood dolls stare back. I am looking through years of children’s Mother’s Day cards and their kindergarten schoolwork, two dozen photo albums, letters from friends, newspaper clippings of family members, wedding invitations. Emotions…. Memories…..

Those who help hoarders say to imagine your house is burning and you have minutes to save possessions. What would you save? I answer that I might not survive the fire because I would have a hard time making up my mind. It’s painstaking and slow but it will be done.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds….

It’s flocking time for blackbirds in the mid-Atlantic area. Once the breeding season has ended, these birds will band together for protection. On any given day in the fall and winter, it’s not uncommon to see large blackbird flocks consisting of red-winged blackbirds, common grackles, brown headed cowbirds, and starlings descent upon this yard to noisily feed on insects, grass seeds, our suet feeder and sunflower seeds from our bird feeders. I can’t say I’m happy to see them and their voracious appetites but it can a spectacular sight.

The screeching noise of the entire flock is loud, grating and annoying. Why can’t they just be quiet and eat?  When the noise becomes a bit too much for us, a simple clap of my hands or the banging of two metal cat bowls together will send them off en mass. But they don’t go far. We can hear the screeching sounds just down the shoreline. When they think the coast is clear, they return.This scenario can be repeated all day for weeks until they decide to move on to other locales.

After a week or so, the birds can become accustomed to me rushing out to shout, clap or bang and they just fly upward to fill the area trees and squawk until the crazy lady goes back inside. Then they return to their noisy feeding.

The birds that visit me are flocks but there is another amazing phenomenon of coordinated movements involving masses of birds that is breathtaking to see. It’s called murmuration and can involve thousands of birds. The purple martins put on a spectacular show in Richmond every year but the blackbirds dazzle us with their aerial ballets just about everywhere. The masses seem to collaborate as they dip and dive and rise and divide in unison. There is no leader. How do they do this? Are there any rules? No one really knows but it’s awe-inspiring to watch.

To get an idea of the beauty of murmuration, check out this video of two young people, Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith, who paddled their canoes in wet, winter weather and caught all the wonderful cloud action of starlings on film. Spectacular!

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday

DIY Birdbath….

I belong to the most wonderful art group that meets about every two weeks for two of my favorite pastimes, a potluck breakfast followed by a creative art project. Our last project, a leaf basin, was so much fun yet simple to do that I thought I’d pass along the steps. Although this was new to us, all our leaf basins were stunning. This would make a fun gift for a gardener friend, a teacher or a gift for your own gardens… nestled on the ground among the ferns.

A finished leaf birdbath

Products needed:

Sawhorses

Tarp

plywood

Sandbox sand, slightly damp

Small bag of Quikrete

Water

Disposable gloves

Large leaves with good veins and ribs (banana, hosta, elephant ear, rhubarb)

Lay the plywood on the two sawhorses out of direct sun. Line with the plastic tarp. Mound up damp sand on the tarp in a dome.  Lay the leaves over the sand and smooth out wrinkles.

With gloves on, mix the Quikrete and water with your hands to the consistency of a brownie mix, making sure all lumps are out of the mixture. It may look too dry, but pat the mixture several times. If the surface begins to shimmer with moisture, the Quikrete is ready. If not, add a bit more water and so on.

Mold the mixture about an inch and a half thick over the leaf, starting at the top and not extending too much over the edge of the leaf. Smooth out the surface and allow to dry for 24 hours. We sanded and cleaned up rough areas. Our leaf creations were then colored with acrylics and sealed.

With the small amount of Quikrete mixture left over, we made other forms of garden art. Using pieces of pine cone for the ears, we fashioned a family of mice for our gardens.

Back Home

I’m home. Virginia will always be the place I call home. After spending the past week and a half in New Hampshire over Thanksgiving, followed by a frantic search for housing in Portsmouth, I am home to mentally and physically prepare for the move.

It was good to wake up again on the North River in Gloucester. Mornings in Virginia begin the same way they have since last spring after I accidentally trapped and transported a Carolina Wren home in my camera bag when photographing on Gwenn’s Island. The wren has appeared outside my office window each morning since then giving me the sweetest wake-up call. Some might say he is simply being territorial but I like to think it’s for me.

Carolina Wren

House hunting in Portsmouth was hectic and tiring but tolerable because my daughter and son-in-law bore much of the burden of calling, searching and driving me from place to place. Not a thing worked out in Portsmouth so we began to venture to small towns surrounding the city to search for rental properties. And we saw them all…. from third floor condos to townhouses to restored historic to the one we finally selected… a saltbox in Durham NH located on a knoll above a vast salt marsh and pasture land.

Although we are close to salt water, it is a much different setting from our Virginia home where we are surrounded by trees and gardens. This quaint Durham home has minimum plantings and overlooks a vista appearing more like a scene from Wuthering Heights.  Standing on the knoll looking over the treeless grassland, brisk winds swirling, I also wonder if I’ll hear the hound of the Baskervilles running over the moor in the dark of a winter night.

Moorlands of North Wales

There is a certain beauty in the grassy landscape and I am excited about exploring, discovering and learning about the habitat and the plants and creatures that exist in this seemingly inhospitable climate. I’m sure a whole new world awaits me.

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Shopping in Portsmouth NH

Did you run a turkey trot today?

Instead of putting our feet up and watching parades and football today, family members were up at 6 a.m., downing a cup of coffee and heading out for an early morning Turkey Trot 5K race in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Temperatures hovered at 32 degrees with morning sun brightly reflecting off last night’s rain puddles, now ice.

Participants making their way to the starting line

The Turkey Trot, repeated in many communities across America, is a  a family event. Grandparents, children, grandchildren, and the family dogs approached the starting line of the race on this brisk Thursday morning. Participants arrived sporting festive turkey attire, Indian and pilgrim outfits, and colorful spandex.Two thousand runners and walkers, up 500 from last year, were poised and ready for the starting gun.After watching Santa and his Mrs. cross the finish line, it was time to head home for lots of turkey, dressing, football and fun.

Hope your Thanksgiving was delightful and delicious!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Preparations for Moving…

It’s interesting how a few words revolving around moving are the same ones used in gardening: uprooting, transplanting, pull up stakes, putting down roots. Very soon we will be doing all that as we find new homes for potted plants, dividing and sharing poets laurel from the garden.  But then, we’re also busy interviewing moving companies, talking to real estate agents in Portsmouth, finding new homes for household items, and tying off  loose ends in the community.

Ware Neck

The tying off loose ends is the most difficult task. Although I’ve resided in Florida and Ohio where work took the family, then finally coming back to Virginia, where I was born and raised, the home of my ancestors and where much family lives, felt like fitting the last piece in the puzzle. It is Home. The importance of a physical place and relationships cannot be understated because it makes us who we are. But we will be taking it all with us, not leaving anything behind.  Family, friendship and experiences.

North River

All will be making the move to New Hampshire with us. They will be there on frosty winter mornings as I sip my coffee from the mug imprinted with the Virginia Creed, ” To be a Virginian either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one’s Mother’s side, is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above.”—Anonymous

We never thought it would happen this soon…

… but after three short weeks on the market, we sold our home on the North River in Ware Neck, Virginia and we’re heading out on a new adventure.  We might be crazy but we’re heading north for the winter months to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Having a newlywed daughter and a college-aged son in New Hampshire, it seemed the perfect place to try something new. We’ll be packing up and shipping out next month. I’m excited to blog as a private citizen and not for the garden club about the flora and fauna of zone 5.  Who knows what we’ll find in New Hampshire (besides snow)? Stay tuned….

Portsmouth NH Harbor

Coastal Color

Fall colors in our coastal Virginia landscape are fairly muted. We have splashes of oranges and yellows highlighting the woods and gardens and umpteen dogwood trees providing deep red accents under the pines. Soon the leaves will fall from these dogwood leaving a single bud standing erect at the tip of each twig containing the flower and two sets of leaves waiting to emerge in the spring.

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)

Yellows are our prevailing fall color around these parts. The soft shades of yellow against the dark trunks repeat every year and we never tire of walking or driving beneath them.

Yellows on our road...

There are several trees around the yard that dazzle us with color and seem to glow in the sunlight like bright fluorescent bulbs. Two of our maple varieties are fall standouts:

Japanese cutleaf maple

Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)

…and my all time favorite trees, the ginkgoes that never fail to put on a spectacular display just for us.

Ginkgo biloba

Ann Hohenberger, The Garden Club of Gloucester

There’s a Spring in my Step!

I’m always a bit melancholy when a season ends. Summer blooms in the garden have faded and died back. Borders look a little disheveled and untidy. Perennials seem to turn brown overnight.

By mid-November in Virginia, it’s a different story. It’s autumn now, my favorite season, and that always puts a spring in my step. Morning chills in the air, blustery winds swirling leaves, and low humidity give me a boost of energy and entice me out for lots of autumn walkabouts. I have engaged in walks with different groups of friends on village streets, on long country lanes, through browning meadows, and on dirt trails. When invited, I have accepted invitations with some walkers who may stop to smell the roses, others who never pause, some who are seeking the arrival of migrating birds, and those who are training for walking half marathons (whew!).  But it’s all good.

Walking by Brent & Becky's Bulbs in the fall

I think the most entertaining fall strolls I have are with my 4-legged friends simply kicking through the maple leaves together and beating the bounds on this property. The canines are invigorated by the end of heat and humidity of the Dog Days of Summer. Daylight Savings Time has ended and we have returned to a more normal time that I like so much better. All is well.

We will enjoy this glorious season of autumn, relishing the sunny days, the blue sky, colorful leaves, the feeling of harmony with nature, before we drift our way on to winter with its gray skies and freezing rain. Again I will be sad to see a season leave. Autumn has been a delight!

Ann Hohenberger, The Garden Club of Gloucester

Wordless Wednesday

Bowls and Doileys in the Garden

Yesterday I awoke to a cool and foggy morning in Gloucester. Until the sun rose to burn it off, the river was shrouded in a thick cloud of moisture, a haze that left the landscape laden in a covering of morning dew. This heavy dew is a frequent occurrence in the fall in Tidewater and it’s a perfect time to check out the almost invisible world of miniature spiders.

Morning fog

There are hundreds of sheet web spiders (Linyphiidae) but one tiny sheet web spider interests me most. The Bowl and Doily Spider (Frontinella communis), found everywhere in the Eastern US, goes unnoticed on a dry day.  Just take a look at what we can see on a dew laden morning.

Bowl and Doily Spider Webs

These tiny webs are named for the unique shapes that the spider weaves. There are two levels to the web, an non-sticky upper area known as the bowl and a lower area called the doily. The spider that lives in the web is found underneath the bowl upside down. Entomologists believe the doily is to protect the spider from enemies below and the bowl may protect it from above. There are ‘trap lines’ that connect all parts of the web to the plants. Although I’ve never seen an insect trapped in the bowl, it’s been said that the Bowl and Doily Spider will bite an insect through this web, then it wraps the prey (mosquitoes, gnats, small flies, aphids) in silk.

Bowl and Doily Spider Web in Dew

I often lean close trying to spot the spider between the sheets of web. But I think I must disturb a trap line and the spider disappears before I can focus my eyes or a camera. We’re talking about a web of three or four inches and a spider about 4 mm in length.

However, I did get lucky this time and captured a fuzzy photo before the little one scampered away.

Bowl and Doily Spider (click for closer look)

In areas of Maine, the native Bowl and Doily Spider is under threat from an extremely aggressive European spider, the Palearctic spider (L. triangularis) that was accidentally introduced into the US. It is overtaking the webs of several varieties of sheet web spiders. The dominant L. triangularis is leading to a decline in spider biodiversity in areas of Arcadia National Park. No one can predict what will happen, but lets hope those aggressive invaders don’t like the climate in Virginia.

Ann Hohenberger, The Garden Club of Virginia