Beauty Where You Least Expect It

Web, originally uploaded by diahn.

Don't you just love kids? No. This is not one of my boys. But hear me out. The boys and I were at the zoo the other day. We go fairly often - it's close by, we have an annual membership - it's safe and the boys can run and learn at the same time. Great fun, I tell ya.

So anyway - we had stopped at one of the snack stations to get drinks. The guys had gotten their drinks and wandered over to the side of the hut, and as I was paying, D yelled out "MOM!! Come here and see this!!" Now, understand that we are at the zoo - cool animals everywhere...white tigers and red pandas and lion cubs and elephants. I headed over to where he was standing and he points out this very large spiderweb glistening in the late morning sun.

We stopped and stared at it awhile, as if it were one of the enclosures the zoo had planned. Look at the intricate weaving - the way the strands are almost perfectly separated, the radial arms symmetrically arranged around the center. And it that center, perfectly still, the hunter waits.

Now, maybe you don't like spiders, but this is really beautiful. All located around the side of your favorite snack hut in the middle of a bustling zoo.

It gets my spider-senses tingling...