March 1, 2012

Winter Light: The Sparkle of Bad Housekeeping



On a recent sunny afternoon, I was reclining on my sofa, reading. I looked up, and noticed a thread-thin line of sunlight floating from the ceiling. That little touch of loveliness come from my laziness with the vacuum cleaner; it inspired me to look out for other moments created by the overlooked threads of spiders.The delicate weaving of light above is visible for only a brief time as the sun moves across the room.




Wispy lines wander from seed head to seed head on a spray of dried Cimicifuga.




The petals of an Annabelle hydrangea are like shyly hidden damsels behind a woven screen.




Two lines of a triangle lightly drawn in space emphasize the structure of an old door latch.




This mass of spider threads is like a tiny woven basket, suspended from a pole and trailing decorative filaments.




The glass of a window, which should be invisible, makes its presence known as tiny lines against the pane hold the sunlight. The bits and pieces of dust and spider web turn a transparent plane into flickering patterns of light and dark; from this perspective, dirty windows can be beautiful.

9 comments:

  1. Oh, got the same spider magic going on here... every so often I dismantle them, but they return so quickly - that's the magic! ( among other things)

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    1. It's so true, Valerianna; they return almost as soon as you sweep them away. How do all these spiders get in the house?

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  2. Lol, just today saw spiders doing the same thing here in North Carolina.

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    1. ah, spiders everywhere! at least they are helpful in capturing small insects.

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  3. Now that is the way I wish everyone looked at a home, especially mine. :)

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  4. What a great post! Of course I'd rather dust, read, photograph and write than dust too. But really: how wonderful that you put all these together in a subject. There was a deservedly famous Finnish writer/painter of the kids' books, Moomintroll (in Swedish), Tove Jansson. She spent much of her life on a tiny island (4 mins to walk it!) in the Gulf of Finland and paid large attention to small things. Her adult novel about this island has been reissued as a NYRB classic: The Summer Book. Phillip Pullman (whose kids' books weren't written until I was an adult) called Tove Jansson a genius. Anyway, I think you'd enjoy next time you're reading...from one bad housekeeper to another.

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    1. thanks, Julie. And thank you for the book recommendation; I love Phillip Pullman's trilogy, so his recommendation means a lot.

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  5. This is the second time I've stopped to enjoy these images. thanks again for making us think positively about our cobwebs!

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