I popped out to the garden earlier to offer a bit of TLC, in the form of a brief watering, to a few plants, when I stumbled upon something I wasn’t quite expecting. You see, I’ve been out in that garden quite a bit recently, and there isn’t usually a huge spider’s web strung up across to the patio from the garden wall.
I say stumbled, but fortunately I spotted it in time, and managed to walk round instead, which I consider to be pretty fortunate, considering the impressive size of this construction. What manner of creature would string that together, I wondered, as I tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade my camera to focus on a hapless fly caught up in the mighty weave, looking at the same time helpless and pathetic, and quite small.
Well, it turns out that the owner of the web is, surprise, surprise, a rather large and unattractive arachnid. I managed to catch him sunbathing a few moments ago. Here he his, wondering how he’s going to eat the big grey thing pointing in his face:
Intimidated perhaps by the shutter noise, he scuttled away up his silk and into some nearby shade and darkness. Wonder if he’s resurfaced yet…
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3 Comments on Something lurks outside
That thing looks huge. Don’t go outside without a nailgun.
It’s probably hiding in the woodshed dear.
There ain’t nothing in the woodshed… except maybe some wood… (and in our case, an old washing machine and a couple of bikes. And no wood.)
For a while this week we had two spiders side by side in two webs. Whether they were a couple, or just trying to outdo each other, I’m not sure. And there were a couple of much smaller ones further along. Possibly their kids - who knows?
Fortunately, a night of rain washed away at least one of the webs, which was a shame for the spider concerned, because it was busily weaving for much of the evening before the downpour. I think if I was a large and threatening spider, and I weaved large webs, I’d learn to forecast the weather a bit better.