On a sunny September day . . .

 

On a sunny September day . . .

 

. . . an industrious spider was at work, centred in her shimmering web, waiting for hapless creatures to wander in.

'Will you walk into my parlour?' said a spider to a fly;
’Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to shew when you are there.’
‘Oh, no, no!’ said the little fly, ‘to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.’

From the poem by Mary Howitt (1828)

 

Pumpkin Mice Tales

 

Pumpkin Mice Tales

The Pumpkin Mice liked their home on the Tower. They especially liked the little children who passed by every day, chattering with their friends and their mothers. Then, suddenly, the little children stopped coming. The Pumpkin Mice were puzzled and sad and wondered if they had done something wrong. They didn’t think they had but there was no-one they could ask.

One day they saw a mother with a little child and overheard her saying, ‘Half-term’s nearly over. Back to school next week.’ The little child began to cry, saying, ‘I don’t want to. I don’t like school.’ The mother said, ‘You’ll be fine. You’ll like it when you see all your friends again.’ They wandered off, the little child still sniffling.

The Pumpkin Mice were sorry for the little child but there wasn’t anything they could do and then something rather strange happened which drove out all thoughts of grizzling little children. Coming out of their pumpkins one morning they noticed that there was a sort of umbrella over them. That was nice because it kept the rain off but it felt odd. The umbrella, if that’s what it was, moved. It had eight red and black hairy poles and when they skittered outside the shelter of the umbrella and looked up they saw that it was red and black and had a big smiley face, so they weren’t afraid. You can’t be frightened of a smile.

The mothers and children began to walk past again every day. ‘Oh, look,’ said one mother, ‘There’s a big spider on the pumpkins now.’

‘Will it eat the mice?’ asked her little child.

 ‘No, no,' said the mother. It’s a friendly spider. Goodness, look at the time. We must hurry or you’ll be late.’

The Pumpkin Mice looked at each other. ‘Spider,’ they said, trying out the new word. The smallest mouse, Little Grey, asked, ‘Where is the time? The mother told the little child to look at it, but I can’t see it anywhere. What does it look like?’

Big Brown Mouse, the oldest and wisest of the Pumpkin Mice, said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s a thing that humans fret over and nothing to concern us.’

Then White Mouse with the exceedingly long and beautiful green tail said, ‘I heard one of the mothers telling her little child that the clocks went back on Sunday. Where did the clocks go back to? And why?’

 Big Brown Mouse sighed. ‘The clocks don’t actually go anywhere. They stay right where they are. The humans just reorganise the hours to make the most of the sunlight in the mornings. It means that night falls earlier.’

The Pumpkin Mice had noticed that big orange pumpkins were appearing on the doorsteps and in the windows of the houses nearby. They wondered why and then they saw them all lit up one night and the street around their tower was filled with lots of children, little and big, dressed up in strange clothes and going from house to house. 

In their hands they carried small baskets and some of the bigger children had torches that they shone to show them the path. One or two of them held their torches under their chins and that made them look scary. Tiny Grey, Small Brown and Little White were frightened but Big Brown Mouse told them to be brave. ‘They don’t want to hurt us. They’re trick-or-treating because it’s Hallowe’en’ and before any of them could ask any more questions, Big Brown Mouse said, ‘It’s bed-time, Mousekins. Good night.’

Things He Can Do

Barry has also always been a very active and busy being so being forced to slow down is frustrating in the extreme. It is temporary (we all fervently hope!) while his new knee beds in or whatever it is that total knee replacements do. Meanwhile he cannot do much to help in the house. Some might suggest that nothing has changed there but that would be unkind, untrue, even . . . (insert ‘wink’ emoticon)

However, there have been a number of events which have boosted his sense of self-worth. For instance, he has removed a large spider from the bath, something neither Susannah nor I were able to do and which the cats, usually so dexterous and efficient, could not be persuaded to tackle.

Another accomplishment was the opening of a particularly stubborn bottle followed soon after by the pumping up of bicycle tyres. Add to this the fixing of apps on my computer and programming the remote control (one of them, at least. We have many, many, many remote control devices.) Buoyed up by these achievements Barry then updated the computerisation of the garden watering system. This means that at intervals during the day (and night) various sprinklers and drip-feeds are activated. It can be quite exciting for the cats when they’re caught unawares, and it’s fun for us, cruel as we are, to watch them galloping towards the shelter of the house, their customary grace and elegance and self-assurance momentarily abandoned.

Barry has also been able to traverse the length of the garden to check the water quality in the swimming pool, something I have no idea about. Doubtless I could learn but, like the State of the Art Coffee Machine in the kitchen, I shall not be hastening to acquire the expertise. I like making coffee in a bog standard cafetière. It’s simple and satisfying. The State of the Art Coffee Machine, however, hisses and steams and drips and demands as much attention as a sulky toddler – actually, more, for it requires regular filling and emptying and cleaning. All right, then, it’s just like a toddler. I don’t like coffee – love the smell, can’t stand the taste, so I really don’t want to know how to operate the State of the Art Coffee Machine. I digress.

The final thing on the list of Things He Can Do is to have his Leatherman all-purpose tool ready at all times, for all eventualities. Well, not burst pipes, obviously, or rewiring the house, but minor things like tightening screws, opening boxes, getting stones out of horses’ hooves . . .

He wanted to add to the list ‘research items to contribute to the general clutter’, otherwise known as ‘looking for things you don’t really need but it would be fun to have’,  but he does that all the time anyway, new knees or not.

 

The Leatherman is the grown-up version of the Swiss Army Knife, much loved of Boy Scouts or whatever they’re called these days. Actually, I think it’s an American version of said knife. I have a smaller version, which lives in a small coin case in my bag. 

I find it extremely useful but then, I think I’m becoming Mrs Gadget. My son’s school friends used to refer to Barry as Inspector Gadget. It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before I succumbed to the attraction of gadgets.

What has this spider been doing?

It looks as though there are two spiders here but there are only eight legs!
Has a female spider eaten her mate - legs first?? Unlikely - surely the body is the juiciest part? (*shudders* I can't believe I'm saying this!) In any case, males are smaller than females.
Has the spider sloughed off its skin? That seems possible but there are still only eight legs!
We enlarged the photograph to try and see more detail but it wasn't clear enough to make a judgement.
Has anyone any idea what has been happening?
I believe I am gradually overcoming my arachnophobia - hurray! This is a very common phobia affecting 50% of women and 10% of men.

ABC Wednesday Round 3 S is for . . .

S is for . . . Stargazer Lily

Spider

Sailing, Spots and Shadows
Swans

Stamps
Stepladders

Salix integra
White-lipped Snail

Seed head
Sunrise
Sunset

Thank you to Denise Nesbitt for hosting this meme. See what other people have found for 'S' here

Winston’s short quick August blog update

Winston here . . . p'rrrrr, p'rrrrr . . .
Thought you'd like to know I'm supplementing my diet. Caught and ate a spider yesterday – bit peppery in parts but that'll teach Mrs H to restrict my food intake don'tcha know.
TTFN
(Note from Mrs H – if Winston's going to eat spiders I'll cut his food even further!)

Camera Critters #71

There was a tiny spider on the conservatory the other day. Although less than 4mm it was a voracious hunter and as I watched it captured a small fly and proceeded to devour it. I don't like spiders generally but this one was so small and rather atttractively patterned.


It is munching the fly in the following photograph, difficult though it is to see.

On the Japanese Anemone a hover fly hovered . . .

A ladybird was busy inside the antirrhinum . . . (this is the only photo that will enlarge . . . no rhyme or reason to it!)

Thanks are due to Misty Dawn for creating this meme and to Misty and Tammy for hosting it.

To see more Critters please click here