Living in a flat with a garden means lots of spiders. You really have to get used to them and you can't afford to be an arachnophobe. Nonetheless, when confronted with a spider the size of my palm, even I couldn't help but feel a little disturbed by its presence. Long ago, at some point in my childhood, I lost the ability to pick up spiders with my ( Read more... )

When (at some random point in my life) I (presumably) said: "Lord, let me be attractive to the females." I perhaps should have been explicit as to the species. My garden has been invaded by spiders (Araneus diadematus).

According to wikipedia:

The webs are built by the larger females who usually lie head down on the web, as in this photo, waiting ( Read more... )

Hectic and busy prepping for the move I was in the kitchen tonight doing the dishes and just as I'm finishing I hear a startled thump and a flash of hind legs and tail disappearing out of sight underneath the bathroom door ( Read more... )

Uh-oh! Boris has some nerve, I tell ya. I throw him out the window at the front of the house last night and damn his tenacity if it hasn't taken him all that time to work his way back up the house, over the roof so that he could lay in wait to suddenly jump in through my bedroom window. Literally, swung up outta nowhere onto the side-wall next to ( Read more... )