Sisters

Back in the days, as in, last year, when the wrens happily nested in their gourd house, life was good. But this year, it became all too obvious that the birdhouse was becoming a rickety tear-down. Something needed to be done.

A packet of seeds, a pile of compost and a long growing season later, we got some new housing stock. Potentially. All related, and all still connected. (Since then, they have been cut off the vine and moved onto the porch for shelter.)

I'm not yet hopeful, perhaps just wishful, that they will cure properly (or at least some small number of them won't rot out completely) and become new homes for the next generations of wrens. 

Charlotte

I was getting very worried, and even commented on it to a few people who wouldn't think that I was getting (even more) odd. 

But it's been years, literally years, since I have noticed orb weaver spiders hanging out in their (her, actually) large, round webs in the front yard. The last time I remember seeing them was probably in 2018; definitely since before the pandemic. 

Charlotte

But this year, perhaps because of all the rains this past winter, or for other reasons unknown to me, the spiders are back! 

My neighbor named her Charlotte (bless you, E. B. White) because she appeared while we were away on holiday and watched over Luna in our absence. And, no, she did not write, "Some Cat" in her web, but I'm sure she could have...

For a few months we dodged her web each morning, sometimes rearranging it for her in ways that probably didn't make her happy. She finally figured out the problem and positioned the support line from the top on the porch pillar and not at the middle. Brilliant!

I haven't seen Charlotte in a few weeks, so I'm assuming that she has moved on. I'm also hoping that at least a few of her babies will appear here next year.