Going to put some materials in the recycling bin – the bin is due to be emptied tomorrow – I found the path to the bin was blocked by a spider’s web and the spider was waiting in the centre ready for some dinner to fly his way. There was no way through except by breaking the web and though I didn’t like to do this I needed to get at the bins. So I gently broke the thread from its anchor in the bushes on one side of the path and placed it on the bushes on the other side of the path. The spider was safe but now its web was useless as a food trap.
By the time I had finished working at the recycling bins, the matter of a few minutes, the spider had summed up its predicament and was busily making a new web in the bushes on just one side of the path.
It reminded me of the story of Robert the Bruce who, defeated in battle, was hiding in a cave from his pursuers. He noticed a spider having to persevere, making many attempts to span a wide gap to make its web – he decided that all was not lost and that he would try again to defeat his enemies in battle. (And next time he was the victor in the battle) Then there are many tales of people hiding from their enemies in a cave and not being discovered because a spider wove its web across the entrance, suggesting to pursuers that no-one could have entered the cave as the web was intact.
They should have studied the behaviour of spiders.
3 comments:
Today we heard a historical talk about pirates, and they learned from spiders. The pirates would wait in coves and then rush out and attack when a ship came by.
I am amazed at the numbers of spiders on our lawn. When there is dew it is just covered.
With spider webs, not spiders.
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