Along Came A Spider.
Hi,
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How are you today, with the weekend all but here.
Hopefully you are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed again….with a healthy wet nose!
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Yesterday turned out to be a superb day, with blue skies, strong sunshine, and it was wonderfully warm again.
We went to our garden and admired all of our plants and did a bit of weeding and grass cutting etc. etc.
The only disturbing note was that there was a proliferation of feathers all over one part of the grass.
But that’s life, in one of it’s tooth and claw moments, isn’t it.
I suppose that every time we all sit and spend a moment of quiet contemplation in a garden we are totally unaware of the various massacres going on all around us in the trees and the various bits of undergrowth.
Just imagine suddenly being an inch tall…..what horrors we would see.
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Talking about horrors.
I suddenly noticed an absolutely huge brown spider climbing up the wood beside our front door when we were going out.
Because it was so massive I leaned in carefully to have a closer look at it.
I was amazed to see that it had a very definite creamy coloured cross on it’s back, that actually looked like very good wood inlay.
It was hard to believe that such a huge fancy thing was something that was normal here in the UK.
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Big H was persuaded to take some pictures of it with his mobile (a bit grumpily I should add), before I went back in to get a small glass and saucer so that I could catch it and put it into a nearby garden before it got squashed in the door.
And, if I am honest, so that it would not get into the house before locating me asleep and giving me a poisonous big bite….as you may have guessed, I am not 100% enamoured with huge spiders that have definite crosses on their backs.
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Once we had done the shopping and we got back home, Big H downloaded the pictures and I started looking up the spider on Google.
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No, it did not turn out to be something horrible that came in with a bunch of bananas.
It was a specimen of Araneus Diadematus.
The female of which can be over three quarters of an inch!
CUE FOR SCARY PICTURE!!!!
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Isn’t it amazing what you never really see around you.
A bit like the bright green shield beetle I saw while pottering about the riverside.
What else is out there?
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OH NO, it’s not safe to go out in the garden!
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Having said that, we will probably have a garden fire today, to do the last clearing up before the winter.
Now I am worried about all of the little things that will be getting burned too.
Life is just all ‘ups and downs’ is it not!
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Tonight I plan to have an ‘up’ with a meaty spaghetti bolognese and a bottle of nice red wine.
Anyway, do have a good spider-free one yourself.
LOL,
J.
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i shouldn’t have clicked on that photo. Hate spiders and their hairy little creepy bodies. Ewww… I was always worried (When staying in Australia) that I’d come across some hideous deadly contraption that’s usually featured on the discovery channel. I didn’t run into any of the more popular evil ones, but we did come across a few huge (I’m talking palm size) spiders in a rain forest up north. luckily my hike mate was some american marine biologist that visited before and was familiar with these monsters up north. they built their webs between tree branches (separate trees), so it’s almost like an arc of spiderwebs we had to walk under in order to keep passing through (here’s a photo i took during the walk – does *not*contain monster spiders http://www.flickr.com/photos/nellleo/3110500163/in/set-72157613033217690/).
It’s labour day weekend here, which means monday is off
I hope you have a great weekend as well!
nelly
Hey Nelly,
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Glad to provide a little spidery frisson to your day!!!
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I have now decided that I shall never visit Australia….unless there’s money in it….a lot!
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Good work you’re doing there.
I was especially taken with Madawaska at Sunset and Kissing Stones, but those moody textured landscapes of the abandoned houses etc. that I saw the first time I looked at your work are still my all-time favourites.
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I shall have a good weekend because I refuse to have any other kind and I hope that you enjoy every minute of your extended one.
J,x.
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Australia is must-see. Despite all the funky fuzzles that live there, it’s a stunning place with genuinely nice people. I’d seriously considered moving down there, alas the boy and I didn’t work out
New Zealand perhaps!
The kissing stones exhibit was excellent. It’s essentially native art (inuksuit, totem animals etc..) on a natural bed of flat stones by the Ottawa river. I was driving after work and saw the sunset so I pulled over, imagine my surprise when I walked down and saw all the neat figures. I do enjoy native art though, and would absolutely love to have an inukshuk built on a field by my farm house -you know, the one that I don’t have yet
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textures are fun to do
some are digitally done, and some are old school with torn canvases, burnt papers and the like. I’m glad you enjoy them 
I have an exhibit at the end of the month in a place called “the lost villages of ontario”. it’s a museum by the St. Lawrence seaway (which separates us from the US). there used to be a village near the river, then the government decided to build a bridge and a highway overtop to go to the US, as well as a dam. So they evacuated the people and their 100 year old houses at the time (this was circa ’40s), and flooded the village. All that remains are 2 pioneer houses, the general store, the church and a school house. I’ll post some photos soon – it’s stunning and very fitting for my faux-aged work 
Hmmm….I don’t know about changing my mind on Australia now- it may be that you are just worried about the Australian Tourist Board sending out a hit squad to get you….to stop you putting the fraidy-cats like me off the whole idea of visiting!!!!
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And what about those serial killers out on the lonely forest roads….we even heard about them over here.
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On a nicer subject though….having the dream of ‘your’ farmhouse is good ‘cos it’s the first step to getting what you want in your future.
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Forming the effects you want with photography sounds fascinating and you are very creative with it.
I like photography too, but just in a straightforward fashion, and Big H does any twiddly bits that I need….so basically I cheat….and I’m lazy!
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Your exhibition at the month-end sounds exciting.
Good Luck with it, hopefully you will get some write-ups in the papers, or a segment on the tele news.
I think you could have a good career with the photography….and the farm!
Have a wonderful few days.
j,x.
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