Lambey Pie: Spidey News

All the news that’s fit to tell…

Because inquiring minds want to know, I thought I would update you on the latest Spidey News. A while back, I introduced you to the spider growing in our backyard. If you remember, while I was trying to research her, I was completely rabbit trailed by the Spidey Silking nonsense. Lo and behold, through life’s synchronicity, she showed up in September’s issue of Better Homes and Garden. (I started this post a while back… backblogging, ya’ know.)

You might wonder about my curiosity with this spider but I can tell you it’s all perfectly normal. Kind of. For about the last 5 summers we have had one of these spiders take up residence in our backyard. We call each of them “Cool Rockin’ Loretta”, or just Loretta for short. All of them have the same name. Every year. It keeps things simple. The name comes from a song by Joe Ely called Cool Rockin’ Loretta . It fits.

BHG tells me that our spider is a female black-and-yellow garden spider. Also referred to as Argiope aurantia. Now you know why we call her Loretta. We can’t say that other bit. She is easily identifiable by her exceptional decorating skills (note the lovely zigzag pattern in her web) and her impeccable sense of style (her colorful markings). She is perfectly harmless unless you are a grasshopper who has made the unfortunate mistake of hop scotching into our backyard. The chilies get a kick out of throwing grasshoppers into her web to watch the show. No, this is not cruel. It’s nature and the circle of life, blah, blah, blah.

This is where the updating part comes in. I was supposed to show you her growing, moving (she moved from the basil to the hydrangeas) and then, finally, her moving on to spidey heaven.

So, here it is. I strongly encourage you to listen to Joe (You can do this by clicking on the underlined song title above, it’s a hyperlink) as you read through this. Then, one way or another, I’ll know you’ve been entertained.

Loretta growing…

Living by the basil.

It seems living above the hydrangeas agreed with her. See how much bigger she got?

Loretta eating things…

A few weeks ago the kids fed her a huge grasshopper that sort of looked like this:

I was gonna take a picture of the actual event but decided it was a little morbid. I thought this wasn’t as morbid since we all know Martha Stewart doesn’t have real, dead, larva people hanging around her house. Probably, is what I’m saying. This is all just good Halloween fun.