If you want to find out what’s important in life… put a pond in your backyard. Yeah, that’s right – I said, put a pond in your backyard. No, the pond is not what’s important – it is what a pond forces you to do… slow down.

Pennie and I just spent a great evening in the backyard listening to music, the sound of the pond babbling and talking. I have no clue how long we were out there, but I do know that for however many hours it was, none of the day-to-day crap mattered.

Once again, the ‘good eye’ award went to Pennie who spotted a small spider bridging the gap between one of the Zinnias and the Rosemary bush. He worked sporadically as he built the main cross beams and took large breaks between creating strands. Then, in a fit of activity, he proceeded to ‘get jiggy with it’ and create this perfect web, complete with tons of reenforcement. In no time at all, he had his first catch and dispatched him with ninja-like moves.

Okay, so you are wondering what the heck is so great about this live Discovery Channel rerun? It is the fact that we were not standing in line at a Wal-Mart, fighting our way through traffic, or watching the latest reality show. We were kicking back, enjoying the peace and quiet and marvelling at the cool things in life.

Did you know that garden orb spiders can number in the thousands per acre?
Wanna know how a spider spins a web? Check this out.
Or how about the different types of webs? Check this out.

How cool is that? I enjoyed a hell of a great evening, relaxed with my honey, and even learned something.