This is a cooking blog, I know. So what the heck is a spider doing here???
Well, yesterday we were in the garden and I saw this spider on the wall where I was planting some basil (grow this year... please)! Anyhow, I said "look, this spider is carrying her eggs"! Hubby grabbed the camera and I took a picture.
I thought this was truly a marvelous thing to see, particularly on mother's day. I mean, yes it may be "just a spider" to many of us. But to this spider, she is quite important to protect and nurture these eggs!
I wasn't certain when I took the photo that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing... but, after a little googling, sure enough this was a female spider (I think a funnel web spider) carrying her egg sac.
Now that's awesome.
p.s. My apologies to anyone that is creeped out by spiders. I am generally not bothered by them, with the exception of earwigs which, yes, give me the creeps!!! Tomorrow, back to food and a break from the "deep stuff", I promise. :)
13 comments:
Dreena, hooray for spiders! I think they are pretty neat, and any time a child I'm working with tries to squish a spider, I remind them that spiders eat mosquitos, (important in Minnesota!) so we should trap and release, or just let it crawl away! That's really cool that you saw that spider carrying its egg sac! What did your daughter think?
cool nature photo -- sometimes they are hard to capture! we're all connected on this little planet...spiders & all!
Happy Mother's Day!
I love spiders! But what I love even more is... 'The Everyday Vegan'! The third edition just came into my local library and I think I'm the first person ever to borrow it out! Vegan cookbooks are really hard to come by here in Australia, in librarys or bookstores, so I could hardly contain myself when I saw it on the shelf! Thankyou so much for this excellent book!
You are really lucky to see such a thing!Thank you for sharing with us!
Yeah. Thanks for that - I have a fear of spiders. BUT...the picture is amazing.
What a beautiful picture of the mother spider, AND so appropriate for Mother's Day. I wonder how many babies she has in that sac.......
While I'm posting here, I have to tell you that the FUDGEY BROWNIES are magnificent. I made them with dark chocolate cocoa powder. I served them to friends a week ago last Sunday and they all loved them. I didn't use the ganache over the top - it really wasn't necessary.
At first I was a bit freaked out until you explained that *that* was an egg sack and now I am ok with the spider! I don't really care for spiders and right now we have all these teeny tiny fast creepy spiders that are hard to catch and put back outside. Killian likes to play (swat) at them.
Ok, I'm wondering how many spiders are in that sack?!?
Hi Catherine - yeah, my daughter thought it was pretty cool, but she wasn't "awe-struck" like her mom! I was fascinated by it!! It's terrific that you teach the kids you work with not to just squish any spider that comes their way. So many kids want to 'kill it' - that's what they say, as soon as they see any bug or spider. Explaining it that way helps them understand there are reasons for these little critters so we should try and just move them back outside where they belong. :)
Hi Vicki, I know... how often do you see something like that, let alone manage to capture it on camera?! I hope you had a lovely mom's day too!!
Gee, thanks freedom!! I had no idea that selection and availability of vegan cookbooks was so limited there. Thanks so much for those nice words - I hope you enjoy trying out a few recipes now that you have the cookbook (for a little while anyway)!! :)
Hello Isil, lucky for sure! I was just digging away and looked down and the spider was - just super cool!
Hi Savanna! If you only have white sugar, you can use it in place of the unrefined sugar. Just use 1/4 cup (substitutes equally). Do you have the pure maple syrup? I wouldn't substitute the white sugar for the maple syrup, because then there will be too much dry vs. wet ingredients - so, hopefully you have that! Stevia can be used to sweeten in small amounts - but VERY small amounts. Too much leaves a funny taste, and also affects the volume and texture of any baked good. I use stevia in my tea mostly, and love it for that. While white sugar is not very healthy because it is so processed, really we shouldn't eat too much of *any* sugar and sweetener. That being said, maybe you can shop for some unrefined sugar the next time you go for groceries with your mom and this time round use the white sugar just to get those cookies baked up asap!! :)
Harmonia, I won't be posting any more spider pictures, so no worries for future posts! :)
Hi starla... you know, I think there can be hundreds of eggs in there - depends on the type of spider I think. Quite amazing that that little sac could have about 2-3 hundred eggs in there!! Anyhow... on to food - wooo hooo for brownies!! So pleased that you love them - thanks for sharing
that, and yes, the ganache really is chocolate decadence overload (though there are days I can handle that)! :)
Hey Leslie! Oh, I know, cats are brutal with spiders - but then, that's their nature and as long as they don't bring a big one (or some other kind of 'find') back to you to show off their "prize", right??! As I mentioned to starla, there could be a coupla' hundred little baby spiders taking form in there - wild, hey?
i think that being compassionate like that.. being able to see similiarities between us and other creatures.. is an important part of being vegan. and being human! we're all just a bunch of mothers trying to protect our babies, huh?
my kids and i love watching bugs too, we never kill them (on purpose). we help our lil spider and ant friends that we find indoors find new homes.. outside!
Great picture! I love spiders.
Savanna, you will have to let me know how your cookie-making works out for you and if you and your mom enjoyed them! Good luck!
Thanks Amy!! :)
I immediately thought of this post when I found myself rescuing a firefly from a spider net tonight and feeling terribly stressed over this fact!
GREAT photo!!!
I am fascinated by and i totally appreciate spiders. They are so cool...
"Charlotte's Web" indeed.
Thank you for posting this!
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