False Widow ….

I think this must be the first spider blip I’ve posted. I’m generally pretty useless at finding tiny creatures to photograph, but this one presented itself on the wall in our hall this morning. 

I used to be very much an arachnophobe. If I caught sight of a spider in a room, as a child I’d summon my father to remove it while I cowered as far away from it as possible. Even as an adult I’ve been known to get up on a chair to avoid any chance of the dreaded spider crawling over any part of my anatomy.  

I think it was once I became a mum that I decided there was no way I wanted to pass my fear on to the boys, so I’m now far more tolerant of spiders.  Mind you, I lived in fear of meeting a dinner plate sized Huntsman when we were in Australia, not to mention all the smaller far more venomous varieties, and was less than comfortable knowing that the paths around our accommodation in the Amazonian rain forest were full of burrows made by chicken eating tarantulas while the pink toed variety lived in the trees above us! 

So I’m happy to get pretty close to this steatoda nobilis or ‘noble false widow’ spider (at least that’s what my identifier tells me) - though I only realise its bite feels like a bee or wasp sting when I look it up.  

Thanks for the sympathy re energy levels. I’m hoping that there will be an improvement with new medication. It just seems an inevitable consequence to a few days of pushing myself and has currently developed into an irritating cough and core throat! At least I get out today - shopping for some new clothes for G’s mum which is certainly a challenge! 


Apologies to any arachnophobes out there - but there’s some alternative views in extras!