Country diary: Caught in the web of a spinning goddess | Country diary

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: To sit and watch a garden spider at work is surprisingly movingMy tiny garden is a disgrace. Everything planted neatly in spring has grown too big and too wild. Fading plants clamber over each other, collapsing among the weeds, but what could feel shameful to me turns out to be the perfect habitat for my garden spiders.The giant spoked webs that stretch over the path between the chaos make it clear: this is their kingdom anyway. Acquiescing, I have taken to ducking and weaving between them as I hang the washing out, moving like someone in a Mission: Impossible scene. Perhaps to the neighbours I look like an acolyte, bowing respectfully. The spiders sit goddess-like in the centre of their creations. The older females have grown enormous, their round brown bodies speckled with that distinctive fleur-de-lys. I am in awe of them. I keep wandering outside just to gaze at them, to wonder at their skillfulness, their stillness, their mythic timelessness. Continue reading...