You’ve seen them in some communities: giant flower pots planted to spiff up the sidewalks of urban areas. So it was in one of these giant flower pots decorating Montgomery Avenue in Pleasant Ridge (Cincinnati), OH I spied a good sized Garden Spider, Argiope aurantia, only inches from the crazy drivers.

I have childhood memories of large Garden Spiders around the barn at my great aunt Betty’s farm outside Springboro. Couple that memory with the scent of Sweet Annie growing around the pen that used to hold hogs in years past. Those memories are probably 50-55 years old and yet still clear as a bell.

It was fun introducing the two Cinci G-kids to the wonder of the Garden Spider, what with her lovely white woven ZZZZZZ coursing vertically in her web. I always hope they behold the wild world of flora and fauna with wonder – and not fear. Respect. Not fear.