No place for an arachnophobist.

Hello dear friend,

I'm back again. Are you still shivering from the first picture that I posted? Hold on then for another round! Where were we? Oh yes, in the garden with Boris my little friend. After I gave Boris his 2 minutes of fame, I safely let him in peace underneath his cosy little rusty pot. So the hunt continues. You should know that where my girlfriend lives, there are these enormous conservatories. These are dense and wet. Perfect environment for creepy crawlies like my buddy Boris. To the conservatory then! When we eventually were strolling along for 15 minutes, looking in each corner and under dusty tables we decided to go outside again. My gut feeling was wrong. Damn! There must be some little insect sneaking around us. And that was the moment that my lovely female compagnon made a very wise remark. "Why don't we have a look in the abandoned conservatory?" Abandoned conservatory? How could I've overlooked that? Women, they can say wise things you know. So we entered this old conservatory. There was some old carpet on the floor and dead plants in the corner. The plants looked like they had been dead for 500years or so. When I lifted up the carpet it was a bingo right away. A 4cm long spider looked shyly into my eyes. When I looked closer I could see that it was carrying a white ball. It looked like it was stuck to its abdomen. Because it is spring I know that some spiders carry their eggs close to them until they find a safe place to leave them alone. Maybe under your bed. Muha! I took my camera and I could see my little friend smile into my lense. Click. Got him. Hanky looks like a lovely name doesn't it? So here's the picture I took of Hanky.

Hanky the spider

I smiled because today was a good day. 2 big smackers, nice. Hanky was already gone when I looked back. It was getting dark and as I am human my stumach started to growl. I was hungry. Ok, one more carpet. Now, it looked like they kept the best for the last. My God. there was this 6cm big spider staring at me. If my mother would have been here then she would be in a tree by now. It was a quick fellow. But I got him.

Tegenaria atrica

No doubt that this was a house spider or Tegenaria atrica. His long legs and typical body were easy to recognise. As he was gone, so was the sun. Enough hunting for today I was thinking. Let's grab a meal. So satisfied I went into the kitchen where I ate a good fresh lasagna. Hmm. Life is good.

You can come out of that tree now.

Love,

Pim