The Ryno Pen

As previously mentioned, this blog is sponsored by Dirty Great Spiders.

Herself isn’t really fond of them, and will do the cartoon-style Standing On Chairs And Hollering Loudly if confronted by a TML¹.

I don’t like ‘em much either: there was the time this Huntsman Spider was hiding in my Saturday-night-go-clubbing shirt, back in the days of the First Flat.

^{(Huntsman image from here, where Tesla coils and all sorts of Wonderful Stuff may be seen. Do visit!)}

The bite, dead-centre on my back, didn’t kill me, but everything went s—l—o—w— and kind of rainbowy round the edges. Not fun I’d like to repeat, anyway.

But I digress, as is my wont. Today I was out taking a few photos of my pepper plants,

(you get the drift), when I walked round the corner and nearly ran into this:

Oh, she was big. She nearly ate the sun from the sky!

Well, maybe I exaggerate, but she was a large spider.

<sup>Beautifully marked!

The boyfriend?

Compare sizes</sup>

A smaller spider was in the web. I presume he was her mate, as he was negotiating the web without any trouble, and she wasn’t inclined (for now, anyway) to regard him as a potential dinner.

^{In the far left you can see one of her neighbours…}

^{The neighbour had an impressive web, too…}

^{… but the next spider along had a huge egg sac.}

Anyway, that’s about it. I’m going up to the house now, walking with one arm raised in front of my face.

G’night, Both My Readers™!

TFF^™0

⁰ Those Fauna-loving Footnotes^™.

¹ Too Many Legs!