Photo: This spider seems to be missing a few legs.
In Asian countries I'm not sure what animal year it is, but in my backyard it is definitely the year of the spider. I went out to clean away the dead vines and plants from the summer's garden and there were spiders of every variety and size out there. Every time I saw a big brown spider I thought of the brown recluse horror stories we've all heard, including one my friend in TX told me last week. While I was keeping an eye out, I picked up a white paper plate that had found it's way into my garden and when I flipped it over it had a black widow on it. I jumped, flailed my arms and launched it off the plate and into the air and I know not where it landed.
An hour later I saw another one, hourglass side up, smashed on the sidewalk. Then as I was pulling out an agressive asparagus fern from around the water spigot, I almost set my hand on another black widow that was sitting there on the greenery. In general I don't mind spiders, but with so many everywhere I turned I was starting to get freaked out. So that's enough gardening for one day.
