Banner for In Touch With Nature 2025Picture caption: close up of a Golden Orb Spider. You can clearly see the orb in the centre and the golden thread
Spiders get a lot of negative press everywhere. Recently, there have been a number of poems about spiders on WordPress and all of them paint spiders as scary creatures which do much harm to humans. I decided to write this post as a tribute to spiders which actually do a lot of good in this world. There are some venomous spiders, but these are in the minority. Thousands of spiders die at the hand of humans due to ignorance and unfounded fear.
The spider I am focusing on for this post is the South African Golden Orb Spider. From March to May, the Golden Orb Spider is an outstanding feature of the NorthWest province in South Africa. Hundreds of these large spiders can be seen everywhere, spinning and guarding their webs, and doing what spiders do which is catching and consuming prey, usually insects, and reproducing.
The female of this species is 1,000 times bigger than the male. The female spins the web and allows several males to cohabitat on the web. The males are usually found at the top of the web while the female sits at the hub, facing downwards, and waiting for insects to become trapped in the web. She then wraps the insect in web to immobilise it, kills it with one bite, and moves it to the centre of the web for immediate consumption or to store in her ‘larder’. I know you are thinking this is cruel but think about the contents of your own freezer. I often think that if the Martians from War of the Worlds arrived on Earth now, they would have had no conscience about eating people after peeping into the average freezer which is stuffed full of meat.
My review of two very different but equally entertaining books.
Detour on the Eternal Road by John W. Howell
Picture caption: Book cover of Detour on the Eternal Road showing an old-fashioned car on a dilapidated highway
My Review
Detour on the Eternal Road, the third book in this series, is Sam and James’ most challenging adventure yet. Two souls, Billy Ray Chitwood, a national car racing champion, and his guide, Dale Earnhardt, have gone missing on the Eternal Road and Sam and James are tasked with locating them and getting the pair back on track with finding Billy Ray’s eternal home. Naturally, their disappearance was orchestrated by none other than Lucifer on his eternal quest to derail souls and his lesser obsession to befriend Sam and make her his queen.
While this book retains its fascinating historical aspects with a visit to the ‘Wild West’ and Hitler’s bunker during WW2, it also has a new and interesting futuristic angle. Events have been put in motion that will result in WW3 and the destruction of civilization. Howell depicts a dark and devastated post WW3 world reminiscent of Nevil Shute’s On the Beach, and quickly invests the reader in this quest for human survival.
This book delves into human nature and emotions such as anger, love, and disappointment as it plunges the characters into situations involving manipulation, deception, and determination to grasp power and wealth at any cost. The darkness of the plotline and themes are, however, off set by Howell’s sense of humour which provide reprieves and laughs for the reader.
A highly entertaining paranormal adventure with a strong Christian undertone akin to CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce. Highly recommended.
Picture caption: Book cover for The Treacle People: Still Sticky depicting a fantasy landscape
My Review
I reviewed this book in my capacity as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. If you would like your book reviewed, you can contact Rosie Amber here: http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/.
Picture caption: Rosie’s Book Review Team logo
The Treacle People is an entertaining and imaginative read for people of all ages. The treacle mines in Sabden which produce half of Britain’s treacle have run dry and the village people are in dire situation. Where can they find a new source of treacle to save their golden syrup, ginger beer and parkin cake business and keep the people of Britain in traditional treats?
Just as despair settles over the villages, hope arrives in the form of a note in a bottle setting out the location of the Professors treacle tracker as well as instructions to King Habbakuk fabled mines, an enormous source of treacle. The villagers set off on the adventure of a lifetime, facing manipulative and deceptive boggarts and all sorts of dangers including Moby Duck, a Great White Mallard which patrols the Molasso Sea. The ingenious characters and settings will delight children and adults alike.
Written and presented as an audio adventure, the sound effects and cast of characters were excellent. It reminded me of my childhood favourite Sparky audio series including Sparky’s Magic Piano and Sparky and the Talking Train. A delightful new family entertainment that will teach younger children to use their imaginations and to sit and listen instead of being supplied with a visual.
This week I am featuring St Thomas Eglin General Hospital in London and the Florence Nightingale Museum which is around the corner from the hospital. Florence Nightingale is considered to be the founder of nursing.
Picture caption: A picture of St Thomas General Hospital from the roadPicture caption: Gate entrance into the hospital and the start of the Covid 19 Memory wallPicture caption: The Covid 19 memorial outside St Thomas General Hospital. Each heart is for a person who passed. Picture caption: I enjoyed this painting at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London AND it has a great door in it.Picture caption: Replica of the carriage used by Florence in the Crimean. The door was a curtain.Picture caption: A picture of the Nightingale sisters at the museumPicture caption: This is the medicine chest that Florence took to the Crimean War.Picture caption: Our hotel in LondonPicture caption: The doors/entrance into the hotel in London
When I was eight, my sister, Catherine, was four, and Hayley and Laura were fifteen months and six weeks old, respectively, my family moved to a small coastal village called Fish Hoek in the Western Cape. Our cottage was a temporary furnished rental for a period of three months while the partly built house my parents purchased was finished.
Mom was busy all day long with the babies, so Catherine and I walked to the beach on our own. Our route took us through the town and past the local grocery store. Catherine and I had been taught to be kind and helpful to others, especially elderly people. I had also been a Brownie for a few months before my family relocated from Johannesburg. Helping others was an important part of the Brownies Association’s ethos.
During one of our walks through the town, we happened to see an elderly lady struggling to carry heavy shopping bags. In those days the bags were made of brown paper and the bottoms had to be supported or they broke. Naturally, I immediately seized this opportunity to be a good Brownie and rushed over with an offer to carry the old lady’s bags for her. She accepted gratefully, and I carried the two heavy bags to her flat a few streets away. Her apartment block had stairs and no lift, which necessitated my carrying the bags up four long flights of stairs before we finally reached the door to her flat. I remember my arms aching from carrying those bags with the bottom one cradled in both my arms and the second laid on top of it. It was most uncomfortable.
The lady was pleased and invited us in for a cup of tea. This was the beginning of a lovely friendship. Once a week, Cath and I would visit this old lady and have a cup of tea with her. She always provided a delicious spread of homemade biscuits. She loved to crochet and showed me some beautiful pin cushions she’d made. I admired them so much she gifted me one on the day of our last visit before moving to our new home. I kept that pin cushion, bright green with white edging, for years and years.
I have often wondered over the years what happened to her. I hope she was happy and managed to get her groceries home without incident. I have no idea how she would have carried them up the stairs.
All the photographs below were taken in the afternoon. The first three are London scenes from the balcony of our hotel room near Westminster Bridge and the street art consists of photographs of construction walling street art taken in Bruxelles, Belgium. These pictures all relate to one length of construction walling.
Picture caption: You can see The Shard in the background.Picture caption: Close up of The ShardPicture caption: I snapped this street art picture on the way to the airport on our last day in Bruxelles
Today I’m starting with the first stop on our tour of Flanders WW1 memorial sites and cemeteries. These photographs are for Dan’s Thursday Doors Challenge. You can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2025/08/14/thursday-doors-returns/. My choice of photographs is deliberate as it goes with the theme of power abuse and the dark side of freedom.
Our first stop was Langemark German Military Cemetery. I realised later on the tour that the German cemetery is much plainer that the Allied cemeteries. There were no flowers, just rows of plain markers.
Picture caption: Main entrance into German memorial building at Langemark German Military CemeteryPicture caption: Doors into the German memorial building at Langemark German Military CemeteryPicture caption: a wreath memorial for the German soldiers at Langemark German Military CemeteryPicture caption: Grave markers at the Langemark German Military CemeteryPicture caption: Columns bearing names of the dead soldiersPicture caption: Four soldiers memorial at Langemark German Military CemeteryPicture caption: list of names on the back of one column
This is a catch-up post as it’s been a busy week and Michael had his final year dance last night. Parents were invited to a dance cocktail event, so it was a busy day.
When I was a girl, charm bracelets were the fashion. Every girl had one and the accumulation of charms for the bracelet was competitive. I was not a girly girl and my ambition at the time was to race BMX bicycles with the boys. I never asked for a charm bracelet. My mother clearly thought I should take more of an interest in the girls’ activities, and she presented me with a silver charm bracelet for my 10th birthday. Insightful woman that she was, my first charm was a small bicycle, perfect in every way. It even had tiny pedals and a bicycle stand. Having always been enchanted with light, the silver bracelet did please me and I did ask for new charms for a few years. The charm that delighted me the most was a small boot – sounds ordinary, but it wasn’t. The boot opened up and inside were the old woman and some of her children. This was my favourite charm. It still is as I still have this charm bracelet after all these years. I don’t have my BMX bicycle, however, so mom was right.
The first photograph is of sunrise over Tokyo from our hotel room. This was taken through glass.
The following photographs were all taken at Madikwe when we stayed at Thakadu Bush Camp.
Picture caption: a very muddy Cape buffalo in the early morningPicture caption: I love this picture of the muddy buffalo in the morning light. The reflection off his muddy torso is amazing. Picture caption: sunrise in the bushveld
Freya is a huge supporter of the poetry community here on WordPress and hosts a biannual haiku challenge which will be opening for submissions soon. Freya also has a marvelous collection of poetry and fantasy books which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Freya-Pickard/author/B086XFHF9L
Today, I am delighted to introduce you to Dwight Roth and his beautiful artworks. Dwight has also recently made the most marvelous electric guitar. Below he shares the significant steps of his creation process.
Thank you, Dwight, for this wonderful article.
Welcome Dwight
First of all I would like to thank Robbie for taking the time to honor me with this interview.
Tell us a bit about your art journey – when did you start drawing and painting? Is it a hobby or did you study art and use it in your working life?
I am a self-taught painter. I learned many of my painting skills from watching Bob Ross and other painters on PBS television. I did a hand full of paintings when I first got married, but did not get into painting regularly until I retired in 2012.
What is your favourite medium to work with from a painting point of view?
I started painting with oils, later using acrylics, and now I am experimenting with watercolors. Acrylics seem to work best for me, since they dry fast and I can go back and cover my mistakes or change what I don’t like. I really like watercolors, but they are very unforgiving once color touches the paper.
What are your favourite artworks – include as many as you want with any information about them and a poem if you have one.
My first major painting was done back in the 1970s in oil. It was of my mother’s home farm in central Pennsylvania. As a teenager, I worked there five summers for my uncle.
A year or two after I started painting regularly, a neighbor down the street stopped by and asked me if I would do a mural of Hobbiton Shire on their garage wall. Her husband was a big fan of Lord of the Rings so she wanted to surprise him. It was a big undertaking, but I sketched out what I thought would work and they approved it. Painting on such a big space was great fun!
I love steam trains, and so I have made an attempt to try painting them. This is one I did for an artist evening on the street in Waxhaw, NC. It is of a coal train coming through the mountains. My grandson came by and helped me get started. I have given this one to him.
I usually paint for myself, so I tend to get emotionally attached to many of my paintings. Here are a few that I really like.
Picture caption: My Grandpa Roth’s Farm
Picture caption: My wife, Ruth
Picture caption: Mountain Meadow
Picture caption: Tears of the Moon
Picture caption: The Catch
Picture caption: Ponte Alexander iii bridge in Paris – made from a small black and white found in a desk drawer at Habitat Restore. My blogging friend Lisa (li-jade) bought this one.
Picture caption: Bringing in the Wood
Picture caption: My Harmony Guitar
Picture caption: Piercing the Darkness – my Christmas painting
Picture caption: Blue Moon Rising
Who is your favourite artist and why? Include a picture of one of their works
It is very hard to pick just one artist. I am drawn to the works of Vincent Van Gough and especially the Stary Night painting which we are all familiar with. I also like the Water Lilies of Monet as well. They both have a very impressionistic style that is fascinating to me. Their understanding of Nature came through in their work.
Tell us a bit about your handcrafts? I am especially interested in the guitar you have created. Please share a little about that project and a photograph or two.
I have always creating things with my hands. Even as a child I enjoyed DIY projects. Just before Covid-19 I became fascinated with Cigar Box Guitars that I saw on You Tube. Having played the guitar for many years, this seemed like something I wanted to try.
I always like trying something different, so I started off trying to make them using hardshell plastic cases that tools came in. I made a Sawzall two-string bass, and then moved on to guitars made with a router box and paint can lid for the resonator. I used DeWalt drill cases, a chair seat from the Restore, and even made a bass from a Satellite dish that I took off my house Roof. I used a little stick-on pick-up from amazon to help me hear the sound better.
These were all pretty crude instruments and played, but were not that great of a sound. A few weeks ago I decided to try making a solid body electric guitar. Using some wide 12-inch bed boards from the Habitat Restore, I was able to cut out one board with my jigsaw that had holes for the preloaded pick up from Amazon. Then I cut out a second piece exactly the same without the holes and glued the two together.
Using my table saw blade, I was able to carve and shape the body like many electric guitars. With the belt sander I sanded out the rough saw cuts and get it smooth. I made a neck out of the same wood and painted it with rust-oleum spray paint and some left over pearl red from my truck painting. I coated that with a can of 2K eurethane clear. It came out amazingly well.
Being homemade, it is not perfect. I worked on getting the intonation correct and it plays and picks up very well. I am happy with it.
Dwight Roth grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He taught elementary school in Eastern North Carolina before retiring after 29 years. Now he lives with his wife Ruth near Monroe, NC, and spends his time painting and writing. He has self-published several books that are found on Amazon Kindle. He is also published in past Old Mountain Press Anthologies. A book of poems called Ebb and Flow and a children’s book on Alzheimer’s called Grandpa Has Holes in His Head are his latest creations. Ebb and Flow is only available in hard copy from the author at dwru27@aol.com
Picture caption: Cover of The Power of Three depicting three young men facing a house with a ghostly female figure rising from the roof with menacing yellow eyes.
What Amazon says
“Polen weaves an imaginative paranormal tale brimming with engaging characters, thrilling action, and well-crafted suspense. Perfect for fans of Supernatural and Grimm, The Power of Three will keep you on the edge of your seat until you turn the final page.” –Jane McGarry, fantasy author
Yesterday, a curse. Today, an inheritance. Tomorrow…may never come.
Beck Teller’s family bounced from one rental to another his entire life. When his father inherits an ancestral home, he and his siblings are thrilled to finally settle down, especially somewhere his family has roots. And those roots run deep—right to the on-site family cemetery where tombstone dates prove too many members met untimely fates.
When Beck and his two brothers begin experiencing inexplicable things, they grasp for practical explanations. Then their little sister gets a warning from beyond the grave, and the time for rationalizing is over. They pledge to protect their family and set out to identify the source of the danger and a means to defeat it.
They never expected to discover their house is haunted by a vengeful spirit who has vowed to destroy every descendant in the Teller line.
Centuries earlier, three Teller brothers battled the evil entity. Since then, her wrath has caused generations of suffering and untimely deaths. Now, three more Teller brothers will stand against this wicked being. But this time, the curse must be broken. If they win the final fight, they’ll banish the malevolent force forever. But if they lose, their family line ends…and they unleash hell on Earth.
My review
I really enjoyed this fast paced and interesting supernatural mystery story by Teri Polen. I have read other books by this author, all of which were terrific reads, but this one really absorbed and enthralled me.
Life has been a financial struggle for the Teller parents who have always rented a house, lived hand-to-mouth, and battled to pay the bills and keep their three sons in school. Their relationship was going through a rocky patch when Harper, a fourth late child, was born. Harper nearly died at birth and the Teller family all drew together to help her fight for survival. She is now the glue that holds the family together and her three older brothers and parents adore her.
The family’s luck appears to have changed when Mr. Teller learns that, as the last surviving Teller, he has inherited the mansion-styled ancestral Teller home. Thrilled, the family move into their new home, spirits and hope high. You never know whether an event is for the good or bad in life though and each of the three brothers quickly starts experiencing strange and unpleasant sensations and noises. After discovering the family graveyard, packed with the remains of Tellers, many of whom died very young and often within quick succession of other immediate family members, and some revealing equipment and books about the family’s history, the three brothers realise there is something very wrong with the house. They are slowly drawn into the drama of the greater Teller family’s past.
The author’s depictions of the three adolescent boys and their relationships with each other and their parents were realistic and enjoyable. The humour in day-to-day interactions, love interests, and the competitiveness between siblings is a great tool to lighten the darkness of the storyline from time to time. The devotion of the three brothers to their younger sister was heartwarming and an enjoyable addition to the book.
The introduction of the various ghosts and the supernatural elements in the novel are well done and quite believable. I had to read carefully to ensure I picked up all the scattered foreshadowing and hints at what was to come. There are a number of threads that all tie together neatly at the end in a satisfying way.
With its modern approach to romantic relationships and life for young people, this book is perfect for a young adult audience and the story is sufficiently complex and compelling to be enjoyed by a more mature and experienced reading audience too.
roberta-writes.com 