If this was the spider that came up beside Little Miss Muffet, then I don’t blame her for running!
We were undertaking our weekly gardening session this morning and having cleared some weeds, decided to plant the peach tree that Jim and Viv bought us some years ago. Experience has previously taught me that the easiest way to make a hole in our back yard is dig out about a foot and then use a wrecking bar to break up the soil and stone and scoop it out by hand.
Previously, however, I’d never come across any of these borrowing spiders. I very nearly scooped this one up in my hand before I realised what it was. It was huge. Not as big as Bentley, but still very big. No really it was and I was dreadfully brave.
I continued the digging with a pair of leather gauntlets. Having got the tree planted, Kate then noticed that a snake had shed its skin next to Basil’s peach tree. Considering that the discarded skin was perhaps nearer to 3 feet than 2 and the snake shed it because it had grown too large for it, I’m not sure I’ll be spending much time in the back in future.