Wednesday 24 September 2014

Is it gone yet?


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Yesterday started off gorgeous and sunny and so we decided that we would pick our pears and apples.   The plums had already been harvested.  They are young trees so it's not a job that really takes a long time. The grass was really wet however from that autumn dew we so often get and so I thought I should wear my wellies.

Well . . .  my wellies are stored in an old wardrobe we have out in the garden that Todd has some garden tools etc. store in.   Of course they were full of spiders webs and dead spiders.  I never checked to see if there were any live ones . . .  just the fact that there were dead ones was enough for me.  There was no way I was putting them on.

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I have a thing about spiders.  I know they are helpful creatures.  They eat all the nasty insects that we don't  really want to have around like flies and such.  I know that if all the spiders in the world were to die, we would too . . .  I'm not sure I quite believe that, but I have been told it is true.  I know that they are not any poisonous spiders in the UK, well . . .  according to Todd there aren't.

That doesn't stop me from being afraid of them.   I can remember an instance when I was a teenager where there was a spider on the mirror in our family bathroom.   If anyone had looked in the house they would have wondered what the heck was going on.   My mother, sister and myself were all lined up in the hallway outside the bathroom door with a broom.  My mother was trying to knock the spider off the mirror into the bathroom sink and of course every time she got near it, it moved.    And every time she got near it and it moved . . .  the three of us screamed blue murder.

And so I can say with utmost authority . . . my fear of spiders is deep rooted and goes way, way back.

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It doesn't matter how large or how small they are.   It can be the most miniscule spider you have ever seen, but if I am getting into bed at night and notice it on the wall . . .  no sleep will be had until it is gone from the room.   It might as well be as large as a bat or another  small mammal.   No sleep will be gotten until it has been taken from the room.  Preferably to be washed down the sink . . .  but my kind husband traps them (grumbling the whole while about what a scaredy cat I am) and lets them out the window.   And then I think about the possibility of them getting back in . . .  a thought which I try to squash down, but which is always there . . .

I know it is just waiting until I go to sleep before it decides to crawl in my mouth or something.   I read somewhere, or maybe someone told me once, that we eat several spiders each year because they crawl into your mouth when you are sleeping.   I don't know how true that is, but it makes sense to me . . .  horrible, awful, sense . . . perish the thought.

 
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Have you ever experienced a "hissing" spider?   I have.   It was when I was living in the house my ex and I had built in the country by  a marshland.   There was this ginormous spider sitting in my kitchen sink.  I tried to turn the water on and flush it down the sink, but it jumped and hissed at me.   Seriously.

The spider hissed at me.  Not once, but several times.

I boiled the kettle and hissed back.  It still gives me the willies even thinking about it.   A hissing spider.   They exist.

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Another time I was getting the children off to school in the morning and I noticed something odd sitting down in the corner of the front door on the front door step.  Upon closer inspection I noted that it was a spider web . . . .  get this . . . .  FILLED WITH BABY SPIDERS!  And I knew that they would be making their way into my house as soon as soon as soon as . . .  as soon as.   I knew I had to get rid of it and so I very bravely picked up one of my then husband's combat boots from the front hall closet and bravely went out onto the doorstep to get rid.

I am sure that anyone watching me had the laugh of a life time.   Every time I drew back the combat boot to smack it down onto the web, the web lunged towards me and I jumped and screamed and then smacked it again and again and again . . . screaming each time.

Even now just talking about it . . .  I got the shivers.

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I know it's an irrational fear.   I mean  . . .  I am a hugh creature in comparison to a spider . . .  but dude . . .  it has EIGHT legs.  Eight . . .  long . . .  spindly . . .  creepy . . . hairy . . .  legs . . . and it moves really fast.

Yep.  I hate them.  I HATE THEM.

I did not wear the boots.

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The fruit still got picked.   We only had about 10 apples this year but we got about half a bushel of pears.  Not bad for a young tree.  

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .

✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿
"I'm not perfect,
but I'm enough!"
~Harold S Kushner¸.•*¨`*•..¸ ✿  


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Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls.   So good!  And not as difficult to make as one would suppose. 

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

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11 comments:

  1. Marie I am not crazy about spiders but have learned to deal with them. One day I found a red back sitting on top of my baby boy's laundry. Amazing amounts of brave behaviour shot out of nowhere and that blighter ceased to exist. The are not the sort of spider you want near an adult let alone a 4 kilo hub.

    Spiders are most unsatisfactory. This thing that terrifies us can look quite large and in death it shrivels to a percentage of its previous size. Then the tale of the demise of the horrendous thing loses its sting.

    God bless your day.

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  2. Oh Marie. I did enjoy your spider tales !! I am not very fond of them either but somehow I have got braver recently and although there is no way I could'nt stay in a room with a spider on the lose since I got my spider catcher I am a bit braver and I rush to open the nearest door or window get the catcher...it is a long stick with a trigger handle on the end are finger like brushes that are usually closed tight but when you acivate the trigger they open wide you stab it over the spider and quick quick pull teh trigger that traps the thing and you dash to the nearest open door /window release the trigger shake it off and bang door /window shut quick !! I have bene real brave and can now do that mostly unless it is on teh ceiling then I haev to wait till Lyn comes no waiting for Peter he is more fightened than me !!... anyway thanks for giving me a few smiles this morning.
    Thanks for prayers Marie they are much appresiated...will be in to see Margaret this afternoon I do hope she will be feeling a bit brighter....

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  3. Suzan, I cannot imagine what I would be like living in a country where there were actual dangerous spiders like there are in OZ. I read once that there is one which hides beneath toilet seats?? Ugh. I fear to think about it. When you're a mom however, you do managed to gather strength from somewhere don't you. Love you! Have a blessed evening! xxoo

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  4. My prayers are continuing Sybil! I will have to look for a spider trapper! It sounds like it was made for me! Love you! xxoo

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  5. PS - I did have to chuckle about Peter being more frightened than you!

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  6. I think you are referring to a song
    There was a red-back on the toilet seat
    When I was there last night,
    I didn’t see him in the dark,
    But boy! I felt his bite!
    I jumped high up into the air,
    And when I hit the ground,
    That crafty red-back spider
    Wasn’t nowhere to be found.

    I rushed in to the missus,
    Told her just where I’d been bit,
    She grabbed the cut throat razor blade,
    And I nearly took a fit.
    I said, “Just forget what’s on your mind,
    And call a doctor please,
    ‘Cause I’ve got a feeling that your cure
    Is worse than the disease.”

    There was a red-back on the toilet seat
    When I was there last night,
    I didn’t see him in the dark,
    But boy! I felt his bite!
    And now I’m here in hospital,
    A sad and sorry plight,
    And I curse that red-back spider
    On the toilet seat last night.

    I can’t lay down, I can’t sit up,
    And I don’t know what to do,
    And all the nurses think it’s funny,
    But that’s not my point of view.
    I tell you it’s embarrassing,
    And that’s to say the least
    That I’m to sick to eat a bite,
    While that spider had a feast!

    And when I get back home again,
    I tell you what I’ll do,
    I’ll make that red-back suffer
    For the pain I’m going through.
    I’ve had so many needles
    That I’m looking like a sieve,
    And I promise you that spider
    Hasn’t very long to live!

    There was a red-back on the toilet seat
    When I was there last night,
    I didn’t see him in the dark,
    But boy! I felt his bite!
    And now I’m here in hospital,
    A sad and sorry plight,
    And I curse that red-back spider
    On the toilet seat last night.

    Still today (2011) many many web sites refer to Slim Dusty as the composer including popular TV shows like Millionaire on Channel 9 which had Eddie McGuire explain the song was sung by Dusty.

    and
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider

    I have seen them in the house and when I was a child the loo was an outdoor affair. One had to be careful then.

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  7. I am not fond of them at all either..
    You're great at telling stories you know:-)

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  8. It is the season for spiders. Outside I'm seeing webs appear daily. I try to sweep them away around the house but they keep coming back. I even had one inside the house yesterday. It was walking across the counter when I reached for my coffee cup. I tried to catch it to no avail. It climbed out of sight and is still here somewhere...oh dear.

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  9. Enjoyed the song Suzan, still wouldn't want to be attacked by a spider on the toilet. I don't think I would be a very pretty sight running screaming from the bath with my pants down around my ankles! haha

    Thanks Monique and Pam! They say because of the unusually dry and warm summer we had this year our spiders will be much larger than ever and they will all be coming indoors now! Happy happy joy joy! NOT . . .

    I hope you find it before it finds you Pam! lol

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  10. Haaa! Forgive me for laughing Marie but you're just so funny in how you tell the story of you and the spiders. :-D But they really are creepy things! One time I slipped on a pair of sandals and got busy throwing out the trash, etc. A 1/2 hr. later I looked down and noticed something white on the side of my right sandal. On closer inspection, to my horror, I saw a large spider with a cocoon encased in it's own web! That freaked me out! Just the idea that I was walking around with it all that time. I think it didn't come out because of it's babies it was protecting.
    xoxo

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  11. How horrible Valerie! You gave me the willies just reading that!! If you want to paralyze me, just put a spider in the room with me. I am going to look for one of those spider catchers like Sybil has! lol xxoo

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