After an hour and a half hike, we found it!

The ancient stone structure was tucked into the mountainside—moss covered its roof. The old wooden door had been replaced with an iron grille denying our entry. Curious to see the inside, I inserted my hand into the small square window to the left of the door and snapped a couple of photos. Hopefully, the camera flash would light the inside of the stone cottage and we’d be able to at least visually enter the space. I withdrew my hand from the shadowy recess and pushed the review button.

Shocked, but pleasantly surprised, I saw a perfectly formed spider web suspended from the right corner of the opening, draping diagonally down almost to the bottom of the stone window. Wow! If I had simply put my hand in another inch, I would probably have had a brush with the spider, or at least destroyed the beautiful web. Luckily neither one of those things happened.

After returning home, we loaded the photos into the computer and laughed again about what a close call we’d had with Mr. Spider.

About 15 minutes after we’d gone to bed, I was awakened by a buzzing sound that signaled the presence of . .  . what? It was too loud to be a mosquito. But what else could it be? I flipped on the light and saw just above my pillow, a spider had woven a web between adjacent walls. A flying insect of some sort was caught. It looked something like a dragonfly, its drooping body thrashing above my head, wings beating wildly to free itself. Just after I turned on the light, it broke loose and fluttered out the open window into the cool night air. I looked up to where it had been trapped. Suspended in the web were the remains of a less fortunate bug. Maybe it was a horsefly. Hmmmm. I made a mental note to vacuum the next day.

Turning off the light, I settled in to sleep, wondering, “How many spiders are spinning webs at this very minute in the various corners of the world?” The answer came to me as I dozed off— all of them!

Note: You may also enjoy our story/video called “Butter Houses.”