After taking a brief vacation near Washington, DC with a friend of mine (who also provides B&B services to a very brave groundhog, several deer, a praying mantis and three foxes), Jane Austen has resumed residency at my house.

Actually, I'm not certain that this is the same Writing Spider that graced my garage a few weeks back. If it is, she's grown some kind of white covering over her upper body (in grade school science I did know the technical term...thorax, is it?).Whereas prior to her vacation she cleaned up her happy home (leaving absolutely no evidence of ever having lived there--it was sorta creepy) every other day and chose a different corner of the garage door in which to weave her web, she has found the study window a comfy locale for about a week now.

The kids are fascinated by her and I'm growing to like her a little myself. Hence, I named her after my favorite writing spinster. I'm just so clever, eh?