There's a spider in the old barn

This morning I went into the garage to put the recycling bin away. The garage is an outbuilding, a barn, well over 100 years old made of local stone. I find it fascinating. Unfortunately when I moved the ordinary bin out of the way there was a huge, giant, enormous, big, enormous (did I say enormous?), big spider on the lid. I think that it was a Cardinal spider.

The French Wikipedia is more dramatic as it gives the maximum length of the spider, including legs, as up to 13 cm which is just over 5 inches! The English Wiki talks of body length only. Mine wasn’t that big. It’s fast too; speeds recorded up to 3.5 Km/h = 2.17 mph. As it happens it is harmless to humans (excepting heart attack when you see one up close).

In bad weather I hang the washing out in the garage – I really hope that the spider does not like fabric conditioner. This is what I wrote about the barn a few years ago: The barn

The tunnels mentioned in the story were built many hundreds of years ago and were a way of moving protestants to safety during the many religious conflicts.

Mrs Bidery’s spidery bedroom

As I was closing the shutters one night last week I noticed several small spiders on the curtains and window. Looking around they were on the walls and along the angle where the ceiling meets the wall. Not nice, but they were small enough not to panic me. I decided to vacuum them up. One or two that had tried to escape onto the ceiling dropped onto the bed. Needless to say I vacuumed the whole room, floors and walls before going to bed. The next night there were a few and the night after, just one or two.

This morning I had to vacuum around the computer, there were four or five hanging around. I wonder if they are drawn by the wifi – or perhaps they like me?

The year moves on

I think it’s time for a little update. We went to the ‘seaside’ at the weekend. We don’t count here as the seaside as the beach is stony and the island is not far across the way. Last time Rob and I went we decided that we wouldn’t go again. Not much fun without bucket and spades and children. Dom asked if we would go just for old times sake so we went and it was one of the three hottest days of the year – the end of last week. So we swam and it was lovely, very crowded though and lots of Brits. In the evening we ate at The Goldwing which is decorated Mexican style. I love the colours warm and faded. We were really surprised at how good it was and not too expensive. American style burgers, though I suspect any passing Americans will wonder where that idea came from.



Olivier has finished at the restaurant and they were very pleased with his work. He earned more than we all thought he would. I told him that I hope he doesn’t spend it all on sex and drugs and rock and roll. I’ve got a feeling that as he worked so hard to get it he’ll hang on to it, for a while. We shall see. He’s started school again – last year, hopefully. They broke his class up as there were a lot of trouble makers but he doesn’t mind too much as he knows most of the others in his new class. So far he’s been pretty cheerful

Dom is busy packing. I’ve been given some makeup she doesn’t want/need any more, so I will experiment with that when everyone is out of the way. She’s just put in a request for new socks before she goes. All the socks in the house seem to have disappeared this summer. Perhaps there is a sock fetishist in the neighbourhood?

Me? I’ve been postcarding most of the time though I did prune the roses and clean out a gutter last week. When we go for our walk in the evenings there are lots of frogs around and they seem to be all sizes. I don’t know if they are different species or all the same but at different stages of development.

The spiders have started to come in. So far just medium sized ones. Winter is on its way.

Oh No!

Someone visited looking for 'what happens to spiders when they are hoovered?' I do hoover them up but I haven't gone as far as emptying the dust bag to see their fate. - Sorry.

How they get in

I know how the spiders get into the house. Like everyone else they come through the front door. Olivier came in one morning and a big one shot round the door frame. I went out to get the newspaper yesterday and one huge one walked in as bold as brass. I shoo-ed him out with the newspaper and he went off down the steps in a huff. This morning I opened the front door and a small (fortunately for me) spider was dangling down from the frame at eye level. I wish they’d learn that our house is ‘invitation only’ this winter.