Webs In My Face

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

I have now finished my radiation treatment and I am enjoying my first day of freedom from not having to go every day to Oncology.

I've been warned that I might not feel well for up to a month. I must just do what I feel I can but take it easy.

That sounds good to me.

There is sunshine and warmth and a pretty garden to sit in and many books to read.

If only there weren't so many spiders about.

They are everywhere right now and whatever I try to do outside, I seem to brush my face against a web.

Isn't that the most awful experience? Maybe you like that feeling?

Silly Spider and a Meme

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

I am normally the kind of person who doesn't like spiders, so you may well ask why I have given this one pride of place on top of this post.

Well one of the granddaughters brought it home last Halloween and it ended up on my wall and has been there ever since.

Not sure how it has ended up on my blog though.

I get a lot of memes and awards and I apologise to the kind people who send them. I am really bad about passing these on and I know that someone asked me to write seven things that you didn't know about me. I have done this kind of thing before. Now I will attempt to write another seven.

1) When I was a child, I spent much of my school holiday in the Lake District because we had relatives there. We used to go camping in a field each year, first in a tent and later a small caravan that was fairly near to the relatives farm near Coniston Water. We used to spend three weeks of every year there and it always rained for those three weeks.

2) When I was about 17, my father let me try out his Lambretta scooter on our drive and unfortunately, he didn't tell me how to stop the machine and I went straight into our front gate, which I knocked off its hinges.

3) I've never enjoyed cooking and regard it as a chore. I was taught as a child to bake cakes and make simple meals but I've never really enjoyed the process..... only the eating.

4) The house where I live now, is the 5th house that I've ever lived in and I have been here longer than any of the others. (41 years!)

5) I prefer living in a city to the country. However I do love to visit the country for short spells (especially the sea) but I am happier in the city, where everything is at at hand.

6) My first memory is probably of me being left in a pram outside a butchers shop, where my mother (and everyone else's mother) had to queue for ages to get a small bit of meat, during the war years. I can remember bouncing about with boredom until the pram tipped up and my poor mother had to come to the rescue and missed her place in the queue.

7) My favourite colour is blue, but I also like green, pink and purple. Brown is my least favourite colour.

I am really sorry that I can't remember who set me this meme.

If anyone else would like to take up the challenge then that would be great. Let me know when you do it and I'll go and read it.

Arachnophobia Anyone?

Photo copyright: Maggie May

There has recently been an announcement on the news, here in Britain, that there are going to be very many more spiders about than normal. This, apparently, is because of the Indian Summer that we have been experiencing for the last month. It has been fairly warm and sunny without much rain for several weeks, although it does get quite cool in the early mornings and the evenings.

I wouldn't say that I had arachnophobia, a severe fear of spiders but I really don't like them.

So OK, their webs look lovely with the sun light shining on them and if there are little drops of dew on the web, so much the better. They are also very good at keeping flies and garden pests at bay. So why are they disliked and avoided?

I think it is the sheer speed at which these creatures run that makes me want to get out of the way. The thought of one on my body is really awful. They are creepy.

At the After School Club where I work, I put on an act of bravery and catch the spiders and throw them out of a door. I usually get a mug, catch the spider in it and put a stiff card over the top and release them outside. My boss, if she catches me, tells me to throw the mug in the bin, even though I think that is such a waste because everyone knows that the mug would wash clean. Its not as though I caught a rat or a cockroach. That would be an entirely different matter.

I read somewhere that the average person swallows thirty spiders in their lifetime, while they are asleep. The thought of that is appalling, especially if you are a vegetarian, as I am. A few years ago, I did wake up one night and felt something on my face. Immediately I snatched it off and threw it down. It was a spider. What if I hadn't wakened up in time to throw it off?

So what is it about spiders that you don't like? Or maybe you do like them.