same but different

Back before Halloween, the school I work at hit up the pumpkin patch with oodles of kiddos and parents in tow. There were all sorts of pumpkins and gourds. Some were quite large while others were quite small and it seemed our tots favored the wee ones. Those they could carry, not one, but TWO in their hot little hands. While we all traipsed about the rows and rows of almost overripe pumpkins, one of the kiddos spotted this awesome orb spider chillin' low to the ground. It was pretty big and at that time it was the largest orb spider I had seen being slightly larger than a quarter...

Cue Monday waffle night at the homestead where I was jibber-jabbing all about the ENORMOUS spider when the mama-a-go-go told me there was a pretty large one in the yard...

Oh my!

 Now this one is the largest orb I have ever seen. About the size of a fifty-cent piece. Fat, slightly furry and so happily full of stripes. She's a beauty. He? I don't know. Not long after that I saw a pretty large spider showing off its web in the setting sun as I drove home from the job-o number 2. I saw it from the car while chillin' at a stop sign. I saw it across the street it was that noticeable. I think this is the year of the orb spider...pretty cool.