#wing mirror

Friday, Friday, Friday ...

I call her Madam Magnifique and she’s living in my car … not right inside, you understand, but really not that far … she’s set up in the mirror and I watch her every day … her web gets tattered by the wind, I hope that she can stay.

I adore spiders and have been watching this beautiful girl for some days now. So many have set up home in the wing mirror but, eventually, decided that the trips to the shiny metropolis were more than they could bear. This one is very determined. She also looks very swollen, so am assuming she’s pregnant. Makes me think of a job I had where I drove a transit van. As I drove along, a little spider dropped in front of my face. I pulled over intending to release it. It was only then that I realised the ceiling was covered with them. Hatchlings galore! A most interesting trip trying to see through them all and reach my destination.

There’s a book I dig out every so often. The title escapes me. There’s a story in it about a gentleman that lives with a spider. In the beginning he uses his broom and destroys web after web after web. He hopes she will leave. As the weeks go by and the spider persists, he gives in. He sits and he watches her. Hmmmmm … I will have to go shelf exploring and see if I can find it once more. His words are far more elegant.

Spiders I have known and loved. So many over the years. The one that lived on one of the back gates. She was there for quite some months and I visited her every night. I was transfixed … she was (quite possibly) pissed off at this strange being that kept invading her space. ‘Such big eyes you have!’ … perhaps that’s what she thought? Had I become some looming Little Red Riding Hood, except without the basket of goodies?

I do feed some of the spiders in the house. The ones with the thin, long legs (the ones that aren’t harvesters). They seem happy to take meat no matter how it’s presented. They are the clean up crew of the cottage. They’re supposed to be fond of woodworm, so I really hope that’s the case. I feed them the corpses of the Mr Snippy casualties. He snicks and snacks at them and dispatches them and I then dole them out. Just drop them gently into a web and then, using a cocktail stick, I simulate the movements of caught prey. Sometimes the spiders just help themselves anyway.

Another memory from years ago. I was staying at a friend’s house. A large house spider ran hell for leather across their carpet. I leapt toward it and captured it in my hands. I stood up and peered at it and said “Wow! This is a big one! Absolutely gorgeous!” However, when I looked up, my friends patently thought otherwise. They were all standing on the settee, horrified expressions across the board and all shouting “Throw it out! Throw it out!”

The only spider that was beyond my desire to capture it was in my childhood home. I sat on the floor chatting with a friend on the phone. Out of the corner of my eye, I became aware of movement. I turned my head and there, wandering magnificently, purposefully, slowly, with a terrifying grace was the largest spider I have ever seen. Her legs were like the slimmest of fingers … she extended them and ‘tasted’ the air … I was mesmerised. I watched her for some moments before reaching for a pair of boots. I carefully placed them near her. She stopped briefly as she acknowledged this sudden block to her path, before decided to work her way onto them. I placed the phone receiver on the sideboard (I could hear my friend calling ‘are you still there?’) … I gingerly picked up the boots, made my way to the front door, and placed boots and spider outside. Ah to have had a picture of her … I have never seen her like since.

Looking back