It is that season

The season that is looking like it may be Wolf Spider season.

Last year at around this time we had just moved into this house. 

And the boys made a fabulous discovery of what we at first were told (by the neighbor kids) was a female tarantula....fairly harmless, but that, on further study, turned out to be a wolf spider.....fairly venomous.  

Well, guess what Ella found in some tall grass the other day?

Another Wolf.

And so,  this season, as well as being back-to-school and soccer-crazed is also shaping up to be the time for Wolf Spiders.

It's all VERY exciting!

We live in an area that has quite a few harmful creatures out and about.

This was very difficult for me to get used to when we moved here more than ten years ago.

I grew up in a place where there wasn't really venomous anything.

And then spent years in Manhattan where there was lots of danger but not typically of the wild animal variety.

And now we live amongst cougars and rattlesnakes, etc.

Though, I'm happy to say, I haven't seen a cougar.  Or a rattlesnake. 

Knock on wood.

BUT!!!!!

The wolf spider is really quite a magnificent creature and we take great delight in spending an hour or two in his presence before releasing him (well away from our yard) back into his natural habitat.

This is a quart jar....he is a big guy.

Goodbye, Wolf!