It must be something to do with the arrival of autumn but spiders are once again trying to invade the house, and coincidentally I am finding lots of ladybirds on the plants in the garden. Granddaughter Number One, who for some reason spent yesterday at Alton Towers, reported large numbers of wasps, also common at this time of year, but in this case landing on her glasses more often than she liked.
On the subject of spiders, here’s a spider hunting story. Last night Phil was in the bathroom when he noticed a moderately large spider scuttling across the floor. Intending to catch in the traditional manner - pop a glass over the spider, slide a card under the glass, throw the spider out of the window - he pushed the bathroom door closed while he turned to get a glass off the windowledge. The spider, possibly sensing movement, maybe seeing a shadow pass over her (I read somewhere that the ones who come indoors are largely female, looking for a place to natch some eggs), turned turtle, lay on her back, drew in all her legs and played dead. She looked nothing like a spider. Had Phil not seen the transformation he would have thought it was bit of black fluff or dust. But he knew exactly what the black blob was. He popped the glass over the spider, whereupon she spread her legs out, did a body flip, and tried to scrabble out of the glass. Phil threw her out of the bathroom window. Who knew spiders were such clever camouflage merchants?
When I reported his exploits on the family online chat, both Granddaughter Number one and Granddaughter Number Two recoiled in horror at the idea of spiders becoming smart! I quite admire Ms Spider’s ingenuity!
This morning I set off early to ride to the market before the promised storm should arrive. It was a lovely morning. By midday the cloud had moved in, bringing rain but not exactly what you would call a storm. I was under the impression that this one was to be called Agnes but someone at the market told me that today we expect Storm Ida. Storm Agnes is for tomorrow! They are the start of a series of autumn storms apparently. We’ll see how that goes!
The market was seriously depleted - only the fruit and veg man and the fish man, and the latter had a notice saying he’ going on holiday and won’t be around for the next two weeks. He’s off to Albufeira in search of some Portuguese sunshine and, presumably, to eat some Portuguese fish. Is the market fading away?
Out in the wider world Suella Braverman has been making speeches in the USA, trying to dismantle all sorts of time-honoured agreements about humanitarian treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers, and declaring that multiculturalism has failed. She must be blind to irony. Born in Harrow, Greater London, she is the daughter of parents who immigrated to the UK from Mauritius (her mother) and Kenya (her father) and, as well as studying at the University of Cambridge, she benefitted from the Erasmus scheme to study in Paris for a couple of years for a master’s degree in European and French law at the Sorbonne. Add to that an American touch (she was reportedly named after Sue Ellen Ewing from the soap opera Dallas, which it seems her mother enjoyed), and you can’t get much more multicultural! Mind you, as the niece of Mahen Kundasamy, a former Mauritian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, she is hardly your run of the mill child of immigrant descent!
She’s also upset one of our national treasures by saying that “simply being gay, or a woman” should not by itself be enough to gain protection under international refugee laws. Sir Elton John said she risks “legitimising hate and violence” against gay people. He and his long-term parter David Furnish released a statement via their AIDS Foundation calling for “more compassion, support and acceptance for those seeking a safer future”.
Here’s a link to an article about the figures she has been using when talking about refugees.
And here’s another article, this time about her attitude to human rights.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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