It was years ago in the summer vacation place, one of my aunties and I don’t remember if it was Harriet or Ann, set the challenge of painting rocks in water. I’ve made a few attempts at watercolors, and to be honest I’m always startled if they even somewhat work out.

This one is from a photo. I was noodling around the shoreline in a kayak and saw a spider as big as my hand sitting on top of the water. I tried to sidle up to it close enough to get a photo with my phone, but it skittered away into this retreat. I took the photo of its lair, and never realized until I looked at it on a bigger computer screen that I’d captured the tracery of its web.