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Discovered this Golden-silk Spider (Nephila clavipes) or, as we locals call her...the Banana Spider, clinging to her tattered golden web. She and her web were gently swaying in our early Fall breezes. At first glance, I thought her deceased, for this time of the year I find more dead than living ones. I'm sure that further south in Florida these beautiful arachnids survive a bit longer but here as soon as the temperature begins to drop they do also. This one had managed to snare a large fly and was busy wrapping it up for a later meal, and as I watched she began to repair her web.

So this image is a salute to all of the Golden-silk Spiders that we've shared our space with this year.