When I first saw them, I have to say I found them frightening. At the Gradyville store, I asked if anybody else had ever seen them. Joseph Parnell appeared to be just a little miffed that anyone could be so ignorant. "Don't bother them," he said. "You need them. One in every window. They kill bad bugs."

I think they called them garden or fall spiders, and I noticed that around many buildings, the spiders would construct their magnificent flat-sheet, orbed webs in practically every window.

The big spiders - little fauna - it turns out, are found most everywhere in the county. Retired science/math teacher Carl Arnold agreed that the advice at the store was correct. "They're helpful," he said, "and harmless. When I was little, I'd let them walk over my face."

I can't recommend that much familiarity with the spiders, but they have won me over.

Until recently, I had always been philosophically opposed to August. Never understood why there couldn't have been two Junes; or for a hiberphile like me, 30 more days of winter. I know one could move only about as far away as Shipshewana, Indiana, and find the latter, but that would mean leaving Kentucky.

The spiders, though, add an accent to an otherwise depressing Kentucky August, and I'm finding the month more acceptable in my AARPian days. I look forward to seeing them, and I know that they presage the great invigorating days of frost, hog harvests, and political warfare, and time to sit back and bemusedly watch all those energized folks scurry about readying themselves for winter. The spiders add a bit of beauty I can anticipate the same way I anticipate the coming of mountain laurel on the cliffs above Green River Lake along about May 5th.

More information on the Black and Yellow Garden Spider:

• Univeristy of Michigan
• http://www.dudak.baka.com/is641.html
• Stratford Landing
• Google Search