Spiders and Butterflies

There is a stack of pants and kimonos on the dining room, cut out and ready to be sewn. They've been sitting there for several days because we've been busy with other things such as observing large spiders:

This beautiful garden spider has the scientific name Miranda aurantia, much to daughter Miranda's delight. This is the biggest one I have ever seen, it's bigger than the palm of my hand. I am both fascinated and a bit repulsed. I am glad it's in the garden!



This is a weed called Japanese knotweed. It's horribly invasive, and for the past five years I have been battling it's attempts to take over my vegetable garden. But if you look closely, you will see it's now inhabited by monarch butterflies. There must be nearly a hundred butterflies flitting around and hanging off the blossoms, it's one of the most amazing things I have seen in my backyard. I don't know why there are so many this year, generally we glimpse a few but nothing like this.


We've also been playing with the new tent we picked up at a garage sale for 5.00. The girls were going to try to sleep outdoors, but after a huge slug crawled onto the quilts, all bets were off as they ran screaming towards the house. But it's a lot of fun to hang out in during the day.



It's also been hard to get sewing done when I have been socializing more than I used to. I've gotten to be good friends with my next door neighbor--given my social anxiety, this is no easy feat for me. Last night we sat in the yard and talked over beers while the girls took turns sliding down her carpeted stairs in sleeping bags. Today I had to explain to Ivy that since our stairs have no carpetting, this would not be a good idea. We'll just have to wait until we can visit Jessie again.