Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Cobwebs


This is the scene when I walk Olga through the nearby housing estate early in the mornings. I love the way those street lamps create orange patches of light.

Our library Christmas tree was delivered yesterday, which meant I had to string the lights and then scrabble around above the ceiling tiles to retrieve the extension cord we use to connect them to electricity. I didn't fully decorate the tree, though, because we're thinking the kids might like to do the rest. It sounds like a perfect homeroom activity. (We say this every year, and in the end, I always wind up doing it.)

We joked that we should hang masks on it, with maybe a latex glove at the top -- inflated, even! That would be star-like, right? But I think everyone is so tired of coronavirus that a normal tree might be more welcome.

On Monday night I was walking down the hall toward our living room and I saw this:


Now, I fancy myself a fairly decent housekeeper. I certainly feel like I'm always cleaning. So how this appalling aggregation of cobwebs grew above our wall sconce, I'm not sure. The funny thing is, from the living room you can't see them at all -- against the wall they're invisible. It's only from the side, when the light is on, that they become apparent.

I feel like the Addams Family. Or the Munsters.

What creates cobwebs, anyway? Spiders? I've never seen a spider in them.

Isn't it funny how we just don't see what's around us, particularly in our own houses? We get so used to the surroundings, so comfortable with them, and we see them so frequently, that creeping changes are invisible to us until they reach some shocking level of decrepitude.

Speaking of which, our landlord's management company is supposed to send a handyman this afternoon to fix our kitchen cabinet. So at least that won't look quite so ramshackle.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks very early morning when you were walking but at this time of the year, I think not. No comment about the Dirty Housewife.

David said...

Cobwebs, especially up higher than eye-level, aren't easy to see. The same experience has happened to me. When I am vacuuming (aka "hoovering"), I try to remember to look up at the cornices where the wall meets the ceiling. Often there is something there that needs cleaning.

e said...

Spiders help control the insect population. That doesn't mean that your house is necessarily dirty.

Moving with Mitchell said...

That cobweb is well-developed. It's incredible how they seem to appear out of nowhere. I remember regularly and vacuuming ceilings in one of our houses.

Ursula said...

You, my sister-in-law (the Ueber Hausfrau) and I should get together and compare notes. Miss Havisham (Charles Dickens "Great Expectations") being the Queen of Cobwebs. I shan't quote Quentin Crisp on the subject since it's overquoted.

Yesterday I took the lounge apart. As in "spring clean", only on December 1st. The run up to putting up decorations. Start from scratch. What do I find? Cobwebs. Just a few. Mainly behind bookshelves. My theory, disputed by the Angel, that cobwebs are not so much spiders' machinations (we don't have any spiders - again disputed by the Angel but then his vision is sharper than your average 20/20 - aspiring pilots eat your heart out) as - I hope you can still hang on in there as to this sentence's construction - just illusions. Dust with ambitions. As you say invisible - until the sun shines. And then there are windows (in the sunshine) vying for your attention. Don't clean them till the sun has graciously disappeared - otherwise streaks will be yours.

Your Covid Christmas Tree is inspired. Just for a laugh I may be tempted. But since I keep the tree up for weeks and weeks and weeks (and, no, I am not Miss Havisham) the joke might wear off and get tiresome.

As to your cupboard door momentarily "being unhinged": Unlike the human equivalent a door can be fixed without filling a therapist's coffers to the brim. Good luck.

Orange light greetings,
U

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Your devoted followers are waiting with bated breath for the handyman's arrival. Will it happen? Will Hell freeze over?

What are you female colleagues doing while you slave away at the library Christmas tree? I guess they are drinking coffee and gossiping about lazy men and suchlike. It's not fair! Free The Steve!

Colette said...

People are getting excited about Christmas decorations this year, like no other. I'm happy about that. Perhaps the kids WILL step up and decorate for you. We could all do with some fun.

Ms. Moon said...

You could decorate an entire Halloween haunted house with all of the spider webs in my house. And yes, the light has to be just right before we can see these gossamer threads. Please don't feel bad about one small instance of them.
I know you'll be glad to get your cabinet door fixed.

Sharon said...

I'll bet someone somewhere will decorate a tree exactly as you described. Your cobweb made me laugh. I've done exactly the same thing occasionally when I find something similar that I can't believe I didn't see before. I think those tiny spiders like to be near the warmth of lights because the last time I found a web, it was over the floor lamp in my living room.

ellen abbott said...

I have small jumping spiders in the house and I never see webs from them. do they not make webs? just jump on their prey? but every couple of months I have to do a sweep around the walls where they meet the ceiling to get the daddy long legs webs down. just can't seem to get them out of the house.

Thanksgiving weekend was the weekend here for neighbors on my street to get their christmas decorations up outside, for those that do anyway.

Anonymous said...

Decorating the Christmas tree sounds like a lovely thing to do in these times. A bit of normal in the otherwise masked-up locked-down reality.
Seeing that cobweb there made me want to google around to find the difference between a cobweb and spider web. Here's what I found:
"Spider web" is typically used to refer to a web that is apparently still in use (i.e. clean), whereas "cobweb" refers to abandoned (i.e. dusty) webs. However, the word "cobweb" is also used by biologists to describe the tangled three-dimensional web of some spiders of the family Theridiidae.

Red said...

Spiders are just plain sneaky. I get the same thing here and I never find the spider.

Margaret said...

I know what you mean. I find cobwebs in weird places when the light is shining a certain way. I had the open area of my house repainted and they had to pull out furniture, appliances and washer/dryer to do so. It was embarrassing. (but now it's clean... for the moment) I like the idea of a tree but don't intend to do one this year. Too much work for just me.

The Bug said...

I found a cobweb while I was vacuuming the other day. Well, I should say that I usually find one, but it's different every time. It's like there's one small portal that opens each week just enough for me to see a cobweb. And you are SO RIGHT about decrepitude! I noticed that the inside of our screen door has dirt (mold?) caked in places. Why had I not seen that before? And also, I finally cleaned the pans from the burners on our stove top and one was rusted clean through! Granted, they weren't in the best condition when we moved in four years ago, but still... We ordered new ones.

Catalyst said...

Cobwebs are formed by creatures with a special spidey-sense. Feel better now?

Sarah said...

Love the morning light in the first picture. And the cobweb made me laugh. I regularly find webs that have had the time to become huge. They are like your one-more a mass of web than a circle. There was a huge one on a collection of Scottish dolls on the shelf who are now in storage for a while. It was all over their heads like something from a horror film!

Ellen D. said...

Yes, that cobweb - it is like my kitchen windows looking perfectly clean until the setting sun shines on them and I can see all of the smudges and fingerprints!

Steve Reed said...

We walk about 6:30 a.m., and it's just barely getting light when we start out.

Steve Reed said...

Yeah, I'm appalled sometimes when I look up at our ceiling! Fortunately the ceilings are high in this place so the eye doesn't often wander up that way. :)

Steve Reed said...

Oh, I have nothing against spiders. Just their old webs! I always avoid killing them.

Steve Reed said...

It's a pretty impressive one, isn't it? That's why I had to take a picture!

Steve Reed said...

I had to look up the Quentin Crisp quote. I assume you're talking about this one: "There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse."

Steve Reed said...

Alas it did not happen. Argh! Somehow Christmas tree duties always fall to me, but I think it has less to do with gender than with the fact that I'm the junior member of the library team.

Steve Reed said...

Yeah, I suppose that's the upside -- no one can say they're too distracted to decorate!

Steve Reed said...

That cabinet door is driving me crazy, and every day it seems to sag a little more.

Steve Reed said...

They DO seem to be attracted to lamps, which makes sense, I suppose. Other insects always like light sources, so that's where spiders would find food.

Steve Reed said...

In the long run, the insects will always win. You can never entirely be rid of Daddy Longlegs!

Steve Reed said...

Interesting! I haven't looked up that particular spider yet, but I wonder if that's what's at work here? It certainly LOOKS like an abandoned web. Thus very cobby.

Steve Reed said...

It's amazing how well they adapt to our human environment, isn't it?

Steve Reed said...

I'm sure painters and repairmen find ALL KINDS OF THINGS when they're moving stuff around! They could probably tell some tales.

Steve Reed said...

Yeah, it's funny -- stuff you use every day you encounter in a very mechanical, automatic way. You don't really SEE it. And then suddenly you do and it looks AWFUL!

Steve Reed said...

I don't like to think about creatures with spidey sense in my house, even though I know they're there!

Steve Reed said...

It's amazing how they can take over in what seems like a short period of time.

Steve Reed said...

Ha! Exactly. Lighting (or lack thereof) makes a big difference!

Ursula said...

Indeed, Steve. Though hope he referred to "dust" rather than "dirt". Dust doesn't do any harm, dirt does have potential to do so.

A long ago friend of mine, dear sweet and beautiful, journalist, a gay man of wit and well versed in the art of conversation and making cocktails, once met Quentin Crisp. In New York. The photograph is stunning. An almost see through old Crisp, ephemeral, with that (admiring, whilst sceptical) young man at his side. Looking at each other. Quentin wistfully so, one may say. Heart breaking.

U

37paddington said...

My house is more ramshackle than ever from hard constant use during this era of covid. I'm making peace with it for now.