Gourdness Me!

Well that's what I said when I saw the Hertfordshire Hunter in the extra. She's massive! Now I'm not originally from Hertfordshire, (I'm from Bromley in Kent, or SE London depending on how posh you do or don't want to be), so perhaps my loyalty to Herts is weak, but I believe these spiders are found pretty much everywhere and also known as Huntsmen (Sparassidae). This one is big however with a 2.5cm body and a leg span upto 10cm! We find one in the house most days at this time of year and put them back outside gently. Did you know a spider has an exoskeleton? That means its skeleton is on the outside so if you drop it and it's skeleton is broken it will die slowly. So don't!
Anyway, I thought these colourful gourds at the florist's shop would please some of you more than my Hertfordshire Hunter? I was out having the treat of a massage; how wonderful! I exchanged it for the pedicure my parents bought me for my birthday. As we've had to cancel our beach holiday a pedi seemed rather pointless and the massage was much more relaxing.

So I saw the consultant this morning. He thinks an op on my disc bulge is probably needed and said I can't fly (big news - I'm not Tinkerbell!). Another scan to check the spine next week. Will be good to get it over with but I'm a bit daunted by the long recovery time. If all goes to plan I'll be hillwalking again next March! Eek, it may feel like a long winter! I'm going to have to hunt out lots of beauties as colourful is these gourds to carry me through. Well there you go, that's a challenge I'll rise to, a winter full of colourful blips :-) There are far worse troubles.