SPIDERS - Those scary little monsters!
This posting has been encouraged by JELyrica's post on July 28th in her lovely book Life In A Nutshell:- 'Spiders and me.'
My mother-in-law was so scared of spiders she wouldn't go near them and always got someone else to gather them up in a duster or tissue and throw them out of the window. I always thought her fear was a little un-called for, but now I understand.
When we lived in our house and our children were small, I came home one day to find a big black, shiny spider right in front of my nose on the door bell. I thought it was a plastic one and someone was playing a trick on me. I went inside and told them all I knew they were playing a trick only to find out that it was a real one! Ugh! It really made me shudder, particularly as I had been tempted to touch it! It lived in a little hole in the brick near the bell push. When we went out to look it was still there. My children were surprised as it didn't look like anything we had ever seen before. Fortunately, I never saw it again.
I have always thought, would I scream if I were really scared? Yes, I found out that I would when one day in the ladies toilets at work (many moons ago now) a spider had the audacity to crawl on my bare leg! I screamed as it crawled and brushed it away rapidly. Luckily, there was no one else in the ladies toilets at the time. Ugh, it was a really creepy experience and it has not helped me to love them any better!
Only a couple of weeks ago I must have trampled on one in the night, (luckily I was wearing slippers, I never walk around in bare feet). It was curled up in a ball completely flattened and was surrounded in it's nasty orange blood. I told it, it was it's own fault walking about at night when it should have been in bed. It didn't listen!
And when dusting I found a hairy black spider leg on the shelf in the bathroom; how freaky is that? It really creeped me out! I spotted a spider crawling into my basket of shells; I wish they would all emigrate.
When I see spiders in the daytime I usually catch them in a plastic cup and slip a piece of paper over the top and throw them out of the window. I tell them not to come back or 'I will kill you!' They don't seem to care. If I find them in the bathroom I pick them up and throw them down the toilet.
I really hate flies as well and anything flying or crawling about my kitchen makes me feel very disturbed. And, we always make sure before going to bed at night there is nothing of the insect variety in our bedroom. Honestly, it's more spooky than Halloween.
It is easy to see why J K Rowling created a huge spider in the Dark Forest, plus all the little ones running around, in the Harry Potter series. She even gave it a name which I can't recall at this moment. It is enough to give us all nightmares!
August 2023
J K Rowling's spider is called Aragog.