Wild Wednesday - Harvestman Spider

Wild Wednesday 36 came with a suggestion for wild tree decorations, and I suppose, if you were really, really wild about Wednesday you could... no.

I'm not a spider expert but I think this is a harvestman, and he or she is planning to spend the winter lodged into the space on my slightly derelict garage door. Can you see, he (or she) is missing a leg or two, but wow the length of some of the remaining ones more than make up for it!

I've spent the morning cleaning out the chicken coop and shutting our three girls in for the winter. It's sad, but DEFRA have instigated a precautionary isolation because of incidents of bird flu in mainland Europe. The risk here is of course very small, but there you go.

The girls still have free space to run about in - about 5m2 - as well as their coop, which is sized for eight birds. But they've been used to running about semi-free range in their far larger front garden run of 60m2. 

They don't understand, and they're a little panicky, but already they've found the ball, and the bell, and they're going to be fine. I just hope we can still rely on neighbours for feed and water on our occasional absences.

Last night went very well, by the way. The hall was filled to the brim, and everyone took away the right messages and understood the issues. Now it's up to them. Finally, thanks to Cailleach for holding the Wilderness together!