TILT-A-WEB

A large orb weaver has chosen to weave her last web of this year (and her life) with one set of supports attached to the side of the big protruding kitchen window (that looks out over the garden) and the other set of supports attached to the opening side of the door to the deck, which triangulates her large web right in front of the door hinges, so every time I go outside her big-bellied chartreuse and red body with long striped legs drops about half a meter, either slowly or quickly, depending on my hurry. Then as the door slowly closes she pops back up into place as before.

Initially she was startled at these abrupt but smooth and apparently causeless changes in her elevation, and would flee for her life to one web edge or another, but now that it's happened many dozens of times to no harmful effect she doesn't even look around anymore. She's become quite at home being the only spider living at spontaneously varying altitudes, and remains serene in the center of her fine web as she suddenly plunges down and then up - many multiples of her body length (15 cm) - several times a day. Maybe she's even enjoying it, hard to tell, since spiders don't really smile. She picked a great place to build her last web though, best ride at the spider carnival...