A female European Garden Spider aka diadem spider, cross spider, or cross orbweaver (Araneus diadematus).
These are known for eating their own web each night and spin a new one the next morning. The form of their web is always a mess; they are not natures strongest architects.
Their colouring can range from extremely light yellow to very dark grey, but all European garden spiders have those mottled markings across the back, with five or more large, white dots forming a cross.
I actually suffer from arachnophobia and getting that close with my lens after having it spread on with water dust wasn't easy.
Each time she started to move I held my breath and in my mind I saw her jumping on the lens, run over it towards me and dive in my hair, crawling all over me.
Nonsense of course but yet I still could "feel" it, hours later.
But slowly I got closer and closer to her and succeeded in obtaining some nice images of her.
It was windy that day, like any other day in October, so I had to use a flash to freeze the movements. The damsel was oriented with her back to the garden while this one gave the most interesting colours for bg. The patio on the other hand was more so so ... So I placed a large black piece of cardboard against a chair in the view field of the camera to get a more even bg.
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Why didn't I suggest rotating this so the spider is looking up! I think it may have made a difference? Who knows. A great shot Nadine. Love that you can see the web clearly. (commenting only)
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