I’m going to come clean right off the bat here—I don’t like spiders. My family can tell many stories of my antics growing up on the farm, where there were plenty of spiders, and the lengths I went to just to avoid them. Even as an adult, I don’t like them. But the Good Lord created them for a purpose, so I just steer clear of them.

Then last weekend I noticed this “lovely” in amongst my fading zinnias. My husband says it is a golden orb spider. She is a weaver of a different sort.

She (he?) is really lovely in her own way. She must be 2” to 2.5” long and her web extends at least a couple feet from stem to stem.  But at the same time, she makes me shudder. I have never seen a spider so big. Fall is on the way here in mid-Missouri and spiders have grown large over the summer months.

Needless to say, the zinnias will have to fend for themselves until after a frost.