Yes, I’m back in balmy tropics. Or am I just barmy?
It was a short trip home to celebrate a birthday (not mine-I’ve stopped having them!) and to see some old friends. There was wine-tasting, wine drinking, wine buying. And food. And a new game involving some very old people trying to identify themselves in some very old photographs. Fabulous weather and trees still wearing their autumn finery.Did I mention the wine?
It was still very much “hot summer nights” when I left https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kji0iO4bwMw&feature=kp.
A scant week-and-a-bit…I returned to teeth-chattering chill. Wha’appen?
And it was a sad home-coming,too. Blue Eyes is gone. Just a spider. And a common one at that, but I felt tears welling when The Man told me. There is a huge tear in the web so we are guessing a bird got her.But, damn! I’m upset. sniff…UPDATE! The Man called me, a few minutes ago, to see something…a new Nephila web!Complete with owner.Perhaps not Blue Eyes, but, still…Insert mental image of two old gits doing happy dance down the driveway!
And I missed some herpetological drama, too. Mr. Next Door looked out his kitchen window and saw this…
So he rang The Man and The Man rang The Snake Man. And lo!The Snake Man did hurry forth, with his snake equipment *
And here is a picture of the Three Brave Men trying to determine what the snake had eaten.**
Perhaps it was the snake I saw on our roof a few weeks ago? Nobody knows, as they say on QI.
Do I have photographic evidence of my having been absent from my post? Maybe. The camera is still in its case. There is a more pressing matter to be addressed.Lu-ceeeee….!
*old pillow case
** probably a plover
Moreidlethoughts Weblog 
You tropics dwellers crack me up. And I thought it was exciting to have a skunk in the yard the other day!
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Well, skunks are fine if not provoked.If provoked? I believe it’s wise to keep a stock of tomato juice on hand! And I’ve just updated the spider story!
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What you offer them a Bloody Mary and they’re suddenly your best friend??
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Hahaha!Very good, Amanda! Apparently, dousing the smelly clothing neutralises the skunky odour.So I’m told…
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Yeah… they say the tomato juice works, but I don’t want to test it! The other night I went outside and called for our black and white kitty, Dominic. Then something roughly cat-sized and black and white started running up the path. But it soon became apparent it was bigger and bushy… and the white was a stripe going down the back! AGHH! (I made it back inside before needing tomato juice.) Still, not nearly as exciting your plover eater.
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Welcome back. Despite not being a fan of (in close proximity anyway), snakes OR skunks are infinitely preferable to the wildlife I hope to see in my yard again today ****the rare and endangered (by me) tradesperson coming to complete their work****
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Ah, yes, the errant tradesmen.I have considerable experience of said chaps. And, as mentioned to PC, above, we have a new spider!
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Oh God! No! Anything but the workers! I’d gladly take the skunks over them!
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I’ve thankfully left the blasted artisan francais well behind….which is what they always were in what they laughingly called work…
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They seem to be a universal band of brothers…I’ve just had some experience of the NZ version! Though, to be fair, one sterling fellow did reschedule promptly after cyclonic weather. Gives me hope…
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Pillow case as specialist snake equipment. Perfection.
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Standard equipment in most cars.For small critters, if not snakes.:-)
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Well, I’m sorry for the plover, but very glad it wasn’t a pussy-cat on the menu!
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Amanda, I think there was similar relief here, too!
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And did you have wine?
Welcome home! Nowt exciting going on here… just the usual rainy stuff.
Sx
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Wine? Um…yes, I do believe I did!:-) Rain? I expect the weather pixies need to top-up all the streams that went walkabout last winter!
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God forbid you ever stop having birthdays. I mean…we’ll ALL stop having them sooner or later, but do you have to put that out there?
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Aww! I was just kidding, really, but,OK, just for you, I’ll reinstate the birthday. 😉
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So glad you’re back! I have a multi complaint about tradesmen. NBN put another trench through my garden and one of them, the youngest, attacked my beautiful spider in her magnificent golden web, pulling down the web. The other men stopped him before he could kill her – saving me the bother of killing him! She’s okay but I think it’s too late in the season for her to remake the big web and she is sitting in a mini web, still a little killing machine but looking a bit sad and lonely. Why would a young man think it was okay to attack a spider in MY garden when she wasn’t of freeing any threat to him. Grrrrrrrrr…….. I was very upset as you may imagine. And there’s another brown snake in my garden… Darn!
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These spiders do not always repair the entire web;sometimes they just make a new, smaller one and there are some opinions as to why, they most logical (to me) being that it may deter predators.Good karma to the workmen who stopped the thuggery. 🙂
Isn’t it getting a bit chilly for browns down there?
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Very chilly so I was very surprised to find the snake. Only young so must have been a late arrival. Now wondering if it has siblings. Cold at night here but lots of sunny days, I expect to see it when I’m weeding. Hope it has moved on because my main worry is that Peggy will find it and get bitten.
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There once was a bit of news about a man in Oz who, while driving his car, was stopped by the police.
As he hopped out of the car, there was a snake on the road. He picked up the snake, held up the police with the snake.
“Put down that snake,” ordered the police.
But he raced away in his car, dropping the snake on the road as he fled.
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Hadn’t heard that story,GG, but can well believe it! I do know the story about the chap who was stopped and Mr.Plod asked him what was in his sack.”Snakes” said the man.”Show me” said Mr. Plod and was sick.
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Spiders AND snakes? Oh, my… glad you’re back, and that it was a wine-filled trip! The best kinds!
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I only saw one teeny-weeny spider and my sister in law demanded its immediate removal.Before I could oblige by removing it to the garden, my brother had squished it. Some people…
Just as well there was wine!
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