Spider Webs and Cast Nets!

~"The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web."~Edwin Way Teale

You know..Edwin Way Teale said it all when he said this. I was out and about early this morning trying to get another photograph of the sunrise. It did not happen..no sunrise this morning. Oh, I imagine it rose..I just could not see it for the fog that engulfed the Bayou. There was a complete "white out"! I could only see maybe twenty-five feet in front of my face! I was just thankful that I did not need to drive anywhere in this pea-soup! But despite the blurriness of the world around me, I could see beauty! There are spiders that make webs in the marsh every night. This morning those webs were dripping with jewels of fog droplets. I was mesmerized by the strength of the webs and by the intricate lacework that the spider had spun. Some were so off-kilter in their design that I made the assumption that some intruder had torn the web at some point. The spider had obviously made hasty repairs and had not bothered to match up the lines of the web. Hopefully, the poor trapper still caught supper and did not go hungry. Life must be hard for a marsh spider..what with high tides, birds and marsh critters constantly smashing their traps to smithereens. I can only think that a lot of patience is tested each night as the webs are rewoven.

Later when the sun did make an appearance, I was thrilled to see the number of Pelicans in the Bay! While on the pier earlier, I could hear the constant splashing of some diving bird but was not sure if it was Pelicans. I counted eighteen beautiful fishermen diving for Mullet this afternoon.

Speaking of Mullet, for some reason the Bay is full of these fish. It is a little "out of season" for them but I am not complaining! I have been going down in the late afternoons and casting the net to catch a mess. The first two days yielded enough for me to give my oldest brother some and then the third day, I decided enough was enough! I needed a mess of fresh fish! I caught six nice Mullet and then threw the net over a hefty sized Sheephead. I cleaned the Mullet for supper but the Sheephead managed to gain a reprieve and was let loose! The Sheephead is a spiny fish and is quite difficult to fillet so after its photo ops..it was slipped back into the water. Perhaps another day it will become a meal..but for today, it attained freedom.

Spider webs and cast nets..sort of alike when you think about it!