OneGuyFromBarlick

And if I'm not mistaken, very common. Funny thing is that I hardly ever see them!

This spider was on our house wall yesterday. The scale is in centimetres. It won't shock the Aussies but it's rather big for UK standards...probably pregnant. Click for a bigger pic - I didn't want to put in a large image, it might frighten some folk!

We have a very big house spider who appears in our living room on occasion, usually late evening, you can actually hear it when it scurries across the carpet. Our cat ran away from it the last time it surprised her.

I am terrified of spiders, we have had two or three big ones in the lounge and they seem to make a beeline for me!!

Some time ago I was lent a book by someone who was studying for his chefs finals. It covered all the kitchen pests and parasites. Nowhere did it mention spiders. It looked like spiders were in a class of their own and by gobbling up the nasty pests they became squeaky clean.

Nothing wrong with spiders, very useful creatures, a couple of our native species can actually give a bit of a nip but it is rare, they normally prefer to keep themselves to themselves and just get on with hunting or trapping the nasties. I have always been the one to effect the rescues from the bath and thankfully the rest of the family leave them to me. Had to rescue my daughter a number of times from tiny eight legged "monsters" according to her. It's an irrational fear in this country.

I had a pet spider when I was a lad but it bit me so I returned it to the wild....

I had a pet boil.......have I told you about it? Nolic

In today's paper a girl has been bitten by a false widow spider whilst in bed - made a mess of her cheek.

Yes Comrade but we lost it when the site crashed. Please tell us all about it again......

I'm too upset at the memories of him at the moment. Maybe at a later date. Nolic

How is Misty? Is she still with us? Fond memories of OFAL.....

Misty's fine Comrade. Bit slower than she was but still chases furries like a good un. Nolic

Good, I'm glad, a good bitch, I always liked her.....

There was a gathering of cats in Butts this morning. Could be sex rearing its ugly head but it could also be the fact that the hens from the pens on the slope scavenge on the verges....

You are missing the fact that it is Halloween. Butts is probably a departure terminus for the Barlick witches. They were just waiting for the next broomstick.

I can honestly say that that possibility never occurred to me! Funny things cats.....

We have a lame magpie which comes on the bird table every morning shouting for its breakfast.

Our baby birds are now out flying. Two were quite eager, but the third refused to try for a day or two after his siblings. Funny enough, the reluctant chick is the biggest of them all...

That's perhaps why it was slow to fly!

Despite the cold, the dark and the mist, the birds were singing sweetly in Valley Gardens at 05:30 this morning. Is it the street lights that get them up so early?

I heard my first curlew this morning and saw it high above in the wind and rain. Amazing to look back in this topic and see that last year I posted about the same thing on the 15th February and on the 19th in 2014.

The blackbirds are chasing each other around as usual at this time of year. It is surprising how they all appear at once when we have only seen the odd one during the winter. The dawn chorus is getting louder as well.

I've noted the same thing here Moh, I even heard an owl in valley Gardens a few days ago, a first for me down there. It was singing 'to-woo' and when I come to look it up I find that the different sexes do the two halves of the song, 'too-wit' and to-woo'. So I think what I heard was a Tawny Owl male shouting for a mate!

We hear him quite regularly up on the Croft.