Let it rain; who cares? I've a train ...

... sang Christopher Robin.

And we have wheels again. It was raining yesterday afternoon, but who cares? We grabbed an umbrella and went to Crescent Beach.


When we arrived, the rain had eased off a bit. A few other walkers were out, some with umbrellas, some getting wet.


All the colours were muted, sand, sea and sky in shades of blue-grey. But the air was fresh and salty, it was quiet enough to hear the sand squeak as it compressed under my feet, and ...


... there were loons!

And mallards, some little divers out a bit farther, and of course, seagulls:

One per post.

The rain was picking up. We decided to walk as far as the pier and then turn back.


We didn't make it. Our cameras were getting wet, in spite of our precautions. (It's really hard to hold an umbrella against the wind, let alone try to aim a camera and hold it steady enough to focus. I gave up and tried to shield mine with my jacket; Laurie used a handkerchief. On the way back, we discussed ways of rigging the umbrella to keep our hands free. Maybe something like a scabbard, with a long-handled umbrella?)

Not a place to rest on a wet day.

Several boats went by, heading sea-ward; somebody else was going to get wet.


Rounding the corner into the street where we had parked, we noticed a fence festooned with clematis gone to seed, the curly "beards" wet and glistening. In among the leaves, large spiders caught raindrops and flies. And there was a bit of shelter in the lee of the fence; out came the cameras again.

Raindrops are falling on my web.

There were at least two different species here. I don't recognize Spider #1. I saw two of them. This is the underside; I couldn't get a look at the topside.



Spider #2 (there were many of these) is the Cross Spider, Araneus diadematus, that we find everywhere. This one has a pretty yellow fly for supper.

And this last one, in the dry(ish) shade of a huge arbutus, was big, and brave, and planning to eat Laurie. (Or so it seems.)



She hasn't made a round web like the other Cross spiders, but has a few long strands from the tree to the ground. And she stayed there while Laurie and I swarmed around, taking photos from front, back, and underneath.



Laurie, on one side, takes a photo of me, on the other. Spider as peanut butter, in the middle.


Isn't she beautiful?

Note the raindrop on her front leg.

We were cold and wet. We left the spiders to their traplines and went to our favourite deli in Ocean Park for hot coffee and tea. Ahhhh!

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