Aza and snake.. again..

Today was Lazuardi Smart Day.. and the theme was.. 'Let's be Animals' Friends'..
Someone (a higher level student), had an idea to bring her/his pet (a snake and a tarantula) to school..
Aza saw the snake, and as can be guessed, he wanted to have his picture taken with the snake.. :-)
Ariq was also having a good time.. He played the drum on stage.. :-)
A very nice day.. ;-)

New Legs for My Spider

This post was supposed to be published in February 2011.. I thought I had published it, but the other day, I found out that it was still a draft.. :-P 

The same article in Indonesian .. "Kaki Baru untuk Laba-Labaku"

Around the new year, I started spider watching again. This time, it was a little one on the front porch. She built a web between the plants and one of the pillars on the porch.

The little spider was unique. It only had five legs..

I felt sorry for the spider, and wondered how would it survive with only five legs. Suddenly, my husband shouted from inside the house, "Don't worry, the legs would grow back!"

I replied, "Yeah, right! Legs can grow back!"

My husband shouted again, "Spider legs can grow back."

Knowing my husband's taste for making jokes, I just grinned and talked to myself, "Sure sure.. That will be the day.."

For a few days, I watched the spider, making sure that it was still in its web. Until one day, I was so surprised to see that I saw a little white thing coming out of each spot where the legs were.

My husband was not joking! So, I called him at work and told him about that.

He said to me, "I told you. I wasn't joking. Just check on the internet!"

So I did, and I found out that spider legs can grow back as long as it doesn't lose too much fluid in its body. WOW! That is a very interesting fact to learn.. ;-)

I took some pictures of the spider to put here..

Before The Legs Grew Back

Hunting with Five Legs

After The Legs Grew Back

Hunting with Eight Legs

I was really amazed, finding out that spiders can survive with only five legs, although having eight legs, definitely made its life so much better.. (judging from the number of flies it caught after its legs grew back!)

A few days later, the spider was gone. The web was deserted. I guess, since it had all its legs back, the spider wanted to build a bigger and better web. I just couldn't find where the new web was.

I just hoped that the little spider was well and happy.. :-)

Where is My Spider?

After three weeks having no time to take a look around.. I finally had a little chance of saying 'hi' to the pretty spider in front of the car garage. Guess what?? I could only find her web and it was already in damaged condition! The web owner was nowhere to be seen and I don't know where she had moved.

Three weeks is not really that long, but it is definitely long enough for a spider to feel the need to move out and build a new web.

I hope I won't cross path with her unexpectedly (I am still afraid of spider in general). I would really like to see her again, though, and I hope she is well..

My Spiders Are Still Around

I haven't been watching the spiders in days, but the last few days, I realised that they were still around.


The female (yellow and black with very thin legs) have moved her web twice. First to the top of the bushes next to the front gate, and then to the left side of the the bushes, which is in front of the car garage.


This latest spot is at the right height from the ground for picture taking, which I don't need a stool or anything to be able to get a clear shot from almost any angle I want, and the pictures turned out very nice (I've only been taking pictures with my Nokia 6120c mobile phone).




The male (brownish colour) was found inside the house, in and around the bathroom area. It was quite big (the one shot on the wooden corner). I haven't see it during the last couple of days though. My guess is either he mated with the female and then was eaten, or it came across a gecko and became its meal.. (the two most likely things to happen to it).

Two days ago, I found another male. This one was smaller (younger, I think). It was sitting on the railing of the shower rolling door (the corner with gold colour).

I managed to get good pictures this time, as they were sitting at the right spots for me and my mobile phone :-)

As I can't promise to put up anymore photos of the spider family here after this, please enjoy!

Spider and Gecko

I saw the spider and the gecko while playing with Aza in the back yard this morning..



The gecko is pretty old, as it has been around the house for quite a long time. My first encounter with this gecko was when I just got married and spent the first the weekend here for the first time.

I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and it was on the far corner of the bathroom wall. In the dark I thought it was a snake! I realised it wasn't when it stood still with quiet eyes (which I assumed wouldn't be like snake's eyes).

Too bad that everytime the camera's flash was flashing, the gecko ran, and I couldn't get any better pictures than these. This is the best picture I managed to take of the gecko. After a while, it finally decided to leave the painting (yes, behind the large painting was his favourite hiding place) and ran to the roof on the side of the house..


When I tried to catch up with him, I walked past my bedroom window and saw this little (about 5-7 cm) spider. Still the same species (black and yellow garden spider) and a female. I managed to get a good shot at it.

Aza loved watching both back yard dwellers.. so, it was a really nice morning..

Have a great day everyone.. :-)

More spider pictures..

I took some more photos this morning.. I climbed onto a stool and managed to take some good shots.




The spider was quiet.. maybe it was still sleeping..







This one is my favourite shot.. It looks as if the spider enjoys being in the middle of its beautiful surrounding..






In this one, it looks like the spider is ready to climb down its web and run to wherever it intends to go.. ;-P





My mother-in-law caught the sight of me on the kitchen stool, and asked what I was taking pictures of.. and I showed her the spider photos.. She was a little worried seeing the size, but I explained that this is the non-venomous type.. :-)

Black and Yellow Garden Spiders

I finally decided to search for the big spider on the internet, and it turned out to be quite easy as the species is very common.. and.. it also turned out that the small one and the big one I found around the house are the same species just different age (they actually grow a lot!).

These spiders belong to the 'Black and Yellow Garden Spiders' and they are very common around the world.

And.. I also found a website with Black and Yellow Garden Spider pictures that look very similar to the ones in our front yard. The owner of this website, David Cummins, doesn't have a 'contact me' button on his website, therefore I couldn't ask for his permission for putting a link. However, he has a 'tell a friend' button so, I hope putting a link on my blog here qualifies as telling a friend.

I am still a little afraid of spiders (I will tell you about it another time) but these garden spiders are very beautiful in the sunlight that I just love watching them.

Fascinating!

The Spiders..

I took some more pictures of the big spider this morning.. The web was a bit too high for my reach, and when I put zoomed it in, it didn't come out as clear. This was the best that I could do.

I also realised that the spider only had 7 legs! A spider expert at the spider exhibition I went to told me that this was usual as spiders fight and they often lost a leg during the fights..

I also found a little spider in the bushes right outside the front door. Unfortunately, my camera was not equipped with micro shot, so, the pictures did not come out very well either, but if any of you were spider lovers, you would probably still be able to tell me what kind of spider it is..

I still really want to capture the spiders well, so, I might still put up their pictures here another time, but this is the end of my 'spider watching' session for the day.

Have a great day!

A Big Spider..

I'm sure all of you have noticed all the links to beautiful picture blogs on my blogs. The reason is because I love nice pictures, especially of the nature and wild life. Looking at those pictures (and reading those blogs, of course) is really my form of R&R whenever my daily schedule doesn't allow me to leave the house except necessary trips to the supermarket or the school for PAT meetings.

I'm not trying to make this blog a picture blog, but as you can see in my Home Blog (Orcalion's World), I have in the past posted pictures that I think were interesting. This particular post is the same case with those picture posts.. :-)

Anyway.. This morning, my husband came in to our room, after taking my eldest son to school and called out to our 2.5, Aza to come out and see the big spider above our front gate. I went with them.

Since we were married, I have noticed that two particular species of spiders have always inhabited particular spots around his family's house (the house I'm living in now), mostly in the front yard.

The first species is a little one, which legs are almost like they were differentiated between front legs and rear legs, because the front 4 are always sort of facing front, and the rear 4 are sort of facing the rear side. This species' web is very beautiful, is the lines in zigzag forms. When I see one, I will take a picture and post it here.

The second species is a big one (A very big sometimes), and this was the one that we saw this morning. The colour of this spider is yellow and black, and the legs are long.

I don't know the name of the spider species, I'm actually hoping that some of you might be able to tell me.. :-)

Oh, I almost forgot about the third species of spider which usually walks around the bathroom and once was taking a day nap wrapped in my shower scrub glove.. ;-)

This species have a family grown inside the house and sometimes they grow pretty big too, but they always run everytime they see one of us. This ones look like normal house spiders, so I don't bother them as long as they don't bother me!

One day, I saw one of the bathroom spiders (one that was napping) was inside a gecko's mouth.. ouch! Poor spider.. it finally had to meet its fate in the circle of life..