The orb spider’s web is a marvel of structural engineering and design. The silken strands are equal in tensile strength to steel. After securing the load bearing anchor cables she spins the connecting webbing, securing each secondary cable to an anchor cable, until the web is symmetrical, beautiful, deadly and complete. In the angle formed by the exterior housing of the fireplace and the side of the house, an orb spider is busily building a web of silken filaments so fine as to be nearly invisible, except after a gentle Spring rain, when the web, catching the sun, shines with millions of tiny, brilliant diamonds.

And yet within a hunter waits
Her patience never strained
She knows her world has many fates
And every one explained
She was not taught in school to spin
Possesses no degrees
Born complete and without sin
She builds with practiced ease
Catastrophe is but the way
Her life just seems to tilt
In her brief life most every day
Her home must be rebuilt
And cheerfully she’s back to work
Repairing severed strands
She knows that life is not a quirk
That all is in God’s hands