The other morning, I was out with the dogs, sitting quietly on my deck, and saw this. Quite exquisite in all of its spiny arachnid glory. About the size of quarter. But the problem is I am an arachniphobe. Like truly, horribly petrified of spiders. And this baby was sitting over my doorway back into the house. It was hard to summon up the courage to go back in. Just ask my family. There are spider stories galore.
One story that lives on and gets recited way too often is the spider and the shower story. A long time ago we lived in an old old house and the only shower was in the basement. It was a pretty primitive arrangement. I went down for my nightly shower and when I was toweling off there was this huge black spider on the floor. It followed me, I screamed, it followed me every time I backed away. And then I heard giggling. Seems my oh too clever 10 year old son had attached a plastic spider to my towel with fishing line. In hind sight this is a pretty good joke and he lives to tell the story-- every year at about this time.
I really met my match spiderwise, in Australia. There we had the Huntsman. An enormous but quite benign spider, human wise. These are huge spiders, about the size of the palm of my hand in Adelaide. The first time I saw these shortly after I moved I was vaguely fascinated but not so much that I wanted to hang around very long. In Melbourne, where they were smaller (not much), they frequently made a home of our house. I patiently learned to scoop them up with a broom and release them outdoors. These spiders were fantastic for insect control so I actually took good care of them.
Every year at about this time I think about incorporating a spider or two into design. Halloween and all. But it's not going to happen this year. That spiny beauty up there in the first photo has put me off yet again. I know all of you spiders out there have a wonderful niche in the eco system, but I'm sorry, I still don't like you very much. I'm trying, but I'm not there yet.
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I'm with you on the arachnophobia. I can live and let live outside, but if I find a spider inside...or suspiciously inching its way toward the door like it is planning to GO inside? Squish.
Holy Sh#t! I don't like spiders either ... and the tales of bed bugs are just about as creepy!
Ya' know what's worse? A camel cricket...if you don't know what it is, google it. They jump. AT YOU. Oh, and in other news a cockroach crawled out of my shower drain the other day while I was actually showering.
I have chills just thinking about those palm size bugs. Creepy.
Shannon
When we moved to Tennessee there were many new "spiders" to get use to. We have had many black widows in our garage and there are lots of wolf spiders (harmless) around, but those are jumpers and scare me to death!
Oye I sympathize with you lit'l sis!! You know I think everything creepy crawly grows to size ginormous here in the almost tropics. Well everything but the little geckos. Now why I ask you couldn't they grow big enough to make a meal out of say la cucaracha, or the 3inch fat furry caterpiller munching on my plants the other day. Instead they spend their days munching on mosquitos and flys. Which I'm more then happy about. :)
Pattie ;)
Mazatlan Mx.
Oh, I hear you, LeAnn. I know it is my own fault that I cannot admire the beauty nature has invested in spiders. But I can't help myself.
We have lots of them here. Not immensly huge ones, more like the one in your first picture. They stay outside. That's fine. It is the ones that look so ghostly and have the awfully long legs and prefer to live in the house that freak me.
All I can say is a big ...Y U C K !
Eek eek eek EEK. Nuff said.
My 26-year old stepson is terrified of spiders. When he was working on a carburetor, he reached into it and got bitten by a black widow spider. Since then, even the tiniest bug is his freak-out. But I think he's allowed!
First, the spider attached to the towel is funny, now. Something my kids would do. Second, is the spider on the side of that house real? Not sure that I could be that close. shivers.....
It's funny how different bugs bother each of us...spiders dont' really bother me much. I usually catch them and take them outside..but then again, I thought that a spider in the house was good luck?
Cindy
Ugh. I've never seen such a fuzzy? feathery? spiky? spider before! At least now I'm not the only one posting spider pics on her blog LOL!
You've got to be kidding me... that australian fella has to be photoshopped, surely? I can not get my head around a spider that big!
Shouldn't have started browsing your blog, rather than sweet bead dreams I now have freak nightmares!
Your son sounds like a really nice lad, I think I would have put him up for adoption! ;)
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