My big girl from August 23 (if you fancy going back to look) has done little else since I last took a portrait of her but grow fatter in her outside corner of the kitchen window, and lose a leg in return. I assume sometime along the way she met a gallant suitor who has increased her size fourfold, as she is now close to the biggest
Araneus diadematus I have seen here. her abdomen is now about the size of my fourth finger nail. I'm very grateful to her for all the mosquitos she has eaten
Alas, she will soon go and find a suitable situation to lay her eggs in, and then, thin and wasted, she will crawl away into a dark corner and die. Such is the life of 99% of Europe's garden spiders. The 1% that hibernate and see out the winter invariably feed the young of the first blue tits to hatch!
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)