Not one for the arachnophobics

Categories: random

Date: 10 October 2008 21:02:06

For the last couple of weeks this spider has taken up residence just outside the back door of my in-laws' house. The left hand edge of the web in this photo is attached to a tall shrub, and the right hand edge is partly attached to the top of the door frame and partly seems to stretch out for ages till it meets a shrub on the other side. There's another similar-sized web on the other side of the door, though I haven't met the occupant of that one yet. I haven't felt scared of this one as it's slightly too high for my head to brush it. HD though had a bit of a shock this evening when he went to take out the empties and went eyeball to eyeballs with this spider! Every time I see this web it reminds me of my favourite Far Side cartoon (which, irritatingly, I've not been able to find on the internet). There are two spiders who've just spun a web at the bottom of a kid's slide, and two fat kids at the top of the slide about to slide down. One spider says to the other "If we pull this one off, we'll eat like kings!" I think of that cartoon every time I see a big web at human height - I guess they're nothing if not ambitious!