Wet Polled Red Poll

I remember my parents talking about Red Poll cattle when I was a child. I've always thought the name meant red head. I've been under a misapprehension. They're a traditional East Anglian breed and they were originally called Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polled cattle. Polled means with horns removed, or in the case of this breed, naturally without horns.

Ollie dog and I met my daughter and granddog and we happily walked in the rain along the canal from Spellbrook. These lovely cattle were grazing and improving Thorley Nature Reserve.

I found a spider walking along the towpath that I hadn't seen before. It was an Aranaeus quadratus, similar to the garden spider but bigger and with four spots on its abdomen. My specimen was bright orange, they are variable in colour. They make their orb webs nearer to the ground than garden spiders and incorporate a little refuge where they lurk rather than sitting in the centre like a garden spider. A scientist I read about says they are the best tasting spider - nice and nutty! As it was raining I didn't want to swap to my macro lens as my camera was soaked so unfortunately my pic is a bit rubbish.