Spider Web

Poetry is a fresh morning spider-web telling a story of moonlit hours of weaving and waiting during a night.

Carl Sandburg

On a foggy morning, the silk strands of a web glisten with dewy diamonds.

A spider hangs in the window, waiting.

After hunting insects all summer, I am beginning to feel a little spider-like.

Patience is key.

Bees will eventually bumble in.

Ladybugs will climb.

A spice bush swallowtail may stay surprisingly still.

The grasshopper will leap into sight.

Tiger swallowtail could get preoccupied with a blazing star,

And a singing Cicada fall from the tree.

The Monarch will make a Royal Appearance,

And unwary flies land before me.

Will you walk into my parlour? Said the spider to a fly: '"Tis the prettiest little parlour That ever you did spy.

Mary Howitt

The Collector

Spider-like I spin

my web patiently, sensing

when you wander in.

I have had a great time looking for bugs everywhere this summer. The spider binding book I mentioned in my last post (click here if you didn’t see that one) is almost completely full of photos.

Spider binding from the top - its shape is the reason for its name.

I realized I could add twice the photos I thought I could to this book because of the wide open format, so I printed the extra photos today. Now I just need to mount them and add the cover photo and I’ll be done.

Another follow up - I am offering a three hour bookbinding workshop on September 28, 2024 at 9:30 am at my barn/studio in Glenn, Michigan.

We will be making a hand-stitched slotted wrapper binding, and, if we have time, I’ll also show you a how to make a couple of fun single sheet folded books. All tools and materials will be provided. The cost is $75 per person. Class size is limited to 10 people, so please let me know as soon as possible if you’re interested by replying to this message (if you received this post via e-mail) or sending me an email at rhodatude@gmail.com.

Thank you so much for being here.  See you next month!

What a beautiful summer this has been. Here’s a brief moment with the sun, before my little part of earth turned away into night.

The Insect Plain

Let us dig our furrow in the fields of the commonplace.

Jean-Henri Fabre

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail hanging from Milkweed

Signal flies courting on a slender leaf

Yellow-striped army worm crawling into the center of a fading coneflower

Despite its hardworking (and destructive) reputation, the carpenter ant takes a moment to walk on the soft petals of Queen Anne’s Lace

Even the biting stable fly can be still in the presence of a pretty flower

A Banded Longhorn Beetle climbs over the Wild Yarrow - is he as surprised as I am to see the little flecks of violet there

a tiny grasshopper hugs a blade of grass with his sticky feet

A dragonfly lands on the sharp dry leaves of grass

Bugs are not going to inherit the earth. They own it now. So we might as well make peace with the landlord.

Thomas Eisner

Abundance

Things are hopping in the field-

hopping and flying

and crawling around

worming through

buzzing about

chewing and biting

slithering

darting back and forth

eating

gathering pollen

mating

laying eggs

waiting…

so many

little

beautiful

intricate

terrifying things…

flourishing

in one little field.

If you follow me on Instagram (@random_rho), you may have noticed me turning my eye to the very small recently: drops of water, blades of grass, bees, flowers and insects. This was partly because I broke a telephoto lens and am still figuring out how to replace or repair it and partly because I’ve been trying to grow some vegetables this year and have realized how much insects can either help or hinder my efforts. So I picked up my macro lens, which can pick up very small details, and started working on my skill with closer, smaller subjects. There’s a lot to learn.

Coincidentally, in the bookbinding group I belong to, The Handmade Book Club, we were creating a Spider Binding, which is a sewn and taped binding with an unusual folding pattern for the pages that makes the finished book look a little spider-like… so I thought it seemed appropriate to fill mine with pictures of insects. Little did I know how easy it would be to find subjects. I mean, I know there are a lot of insects out there, but when you start really looking on purpose, it’s shocking how many you can see in just a few minutes. They’re everywhere. They don’t stick around posing for the camera, of course. Big grasshoppers and most moths and butterflies flit around so much that it’s stressful to chase after them. But I found that if I stayed in one place in the field long enough, they would come to me. Sometimes this meant they would land on me. Some of them bite, so I had to be careful. I don’t love all of these creatures. Some are scary and some eat plants and trees that I would prefer they didn’t, but I am still so amazed by the variety and abundance existing in such a small area. It will be an ongoing project this summer. At the end, I’ll share pictures of the books I’ve made (There will have to be more than one!).

Also, I am still developing a bookbinding workshop for late September. I’ll send a special announcement when I have the date and time arranged.

Thank you so much for being here! I will see you next month!

P.S. The blog title is loosely taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau:

"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain." ~ Henry David Thoreau

An Andrena Bee bathing itself in pollen on a wild chicory flower

Faith of a Butterfly

Eventually I saw that the path of the heart requires a full gesture, a degree of abandon that can be terrifying. Only then is it possible to achieve a sparkling metamorphosis.

Carlos Castaneda

Metamorphosis

A tiny egg, left on a leaf, begins to split open. A worm-like thing, not much bigger than a piece of dirt crawls out and begins to eat. The little creature grows and sheds its skin, and grows again, and again and again, until one day it begins to feel a change in its body. Knowing instinctively that this change requires action, the creature finds a spot to spin a silk hammock to hang from. After the creature hangs itself here, its outer skin forms a soft shell that hardens into a firm case, almost mummy-like. This is a precarious time.

The creature is immobile and unable to protect itself from predators. Inside, its body is dissolving into liquid and reforming, gradually changing the function of nearly every cell. One day, the re-formed body inside is stronger than the outer shell- and moving restlessly, breaks the shell open.

Wings! Now it has wings! Beautiful, colorful wings. Blood pumps from its little heart to fill them with the strength they need to stretch out and fly - and to achieve this, all the little creature had to do was nearly die.

A monarch clinging to a Milkweed Flower (in the company of a bee) - milkweed is the only plant where monarchs can lay their eggs. I noticed this year that many of my neighbors let the milkweed grow in their gardens. Some even purposely planted it. I am sure that’s why I’ve seen more monarchs this year, and it’s another reason I love my neighbors.

Zebra longwing - this is a butterfly I saw in Florida, at Oleta River State Park, earlier this year.

Mexican Silverspots mirroring each other - Miami Beach.

A gathering of pearl crescent butterflies (and a bee) along the trail in Teton-Bridgerton National Forest

A swallowtail that stayed. I usually find them to be such frantic flyers, but this one was happy in my neighbors flowers.

Pretty little cabbage white butterfly on the marjoram blossoms in my front garden.

Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. Hans Christian Andersen

All of these photos, except the last one, were taken this year. I am always looking for butterflies when I see flowers and the weather is warm. I knew, but didn’t really understand, the stages of the life of a butterfly until I was researching it for this post. It made me think of moments in my life when I am fearful and uncertain about forces that are out of my control. What if I could see these things as a metamorphosis, making a me stronger version of myself?

If you want to know more about the transition from caterpillar to pupa (chrysalis) to butterfly, click here. From the perspective of a human, especially a claustrophobic one, the whole concept is terrifying.

Thank you so much for being here! I will see you next week!

P.S. I have some 8X10 prints of the last picture available, if you’re interested, and I can custom print any of the photos in my blog. Just email me by using this link: Rhoda Lewis.