Autumn Equinox

The days are on the slippery slope getting shorter at their quickest towards winter. We've had some fairly cold nights, and the spiders and woodlice are letting us know it's chilly outside by coming in and setting up home by the fireplace. I'm not especially scared of spiders, thanks to my Mum (whom I have a picture of somewhere holding a tarantula) but I won't pick them up (having seen my Mum's finger swell up and go numb after being bit by a spider that she was rescuing from the dog's water bowl) so we have plastic pots and pieces of card handy for taking them outside. Some of them have been monsters! Spiders may be hairy and scary, but they are useful little creatures who help reduce the number of insects in the world and I would urge you to put them out rather than squash them (you only end up having to deal with a dead spider instead of a live one, which is worse, in my opinion, as you have to move it yourself). Woodlice that come inside die very soon from dehydration, so if you like the teeny armadillo lookylikeys you should put them out too before they succumb to the Sahara-like conditions of your carpet.

So another weekend has gone, but it was fairly productive. I painted the front window, which now looks white and glossy and makes all the others look twice as bad. I uploaded my latest photos to the online gallery (there is a link over on the left if anyone wants to see more of our walks and days out - although there has been shamefully less walking this year than there should have been). I did some baking and some knitting. I managed to ignore the untactful utterings of my MIL without laughing in her face or poking her with a paintbrush. Job well done.