This encounter of two garden spiders happened as I left my house. I grabbed my camera and filmed the two spiders in what appeared to be courtship.
These spiders are docile and harmless to people. I like to see them in my garden as they take out a lot of the flying insects such as misquotes and wasps.
It is fairly interesting to see the male attempt to wrap the legs of the much larger and aggressive female with its web. Ultimately the female was not interested and the male paid the price.
This is a fairly common scenario with this Cross Orb Weaver; apparently love really does hurt when you are a male garden spider.