For the record, but at the risk of starting to repeat myself, it's been a lovely sunny, freezing day. I didn't do much so today I'm going to tell you a true story.Today's picture is of a web in a cardboard tube, but there's so much more to it than that, it's a small part of the saga that is: Simon The Spider.
It all started with a flatmate down the corridor who is arachnophobic and wanted me to dispose of a spider on her window. I scooped it up in a bag and put it on my houseplant, thinking it'd be nice to give a new little home; I gave it a name too, Simon Jones.
Simon was great, running around my plant but never running off, living in a web of his own. When I went to bed one night, cheeky little Simon decided to dangle off one of leaves on the plant using his spidey-silk. Sadly, this was rather blocking my view of the TV screen from the bed; it seemed cheeky little Simon had become a cheeky little sod.
So, I found a cardboard tube and scooped him in there, thinking it would be a container for him overnight. Sure enough, in the morning, he'd made a web all the way down the tube, as pictured (or tunnel as he called it); I thought I should remove the tube lid to give him some air during the day. Unsurprisingly, he ran off when I wasn't looking; probably to go and search for his former paradise of the houseplant.
I had written him off, but it was far from over. Well, far from over is a bit exaggerated, but there's one more part to the story. As I was working, I reached down to scratch an itch on my leg when I saw a little thing fall out of my trousers; it wasn't an itch, it was Simon! Severely crippled after my heavy handed trouser incident, Simon was down to seven legs and wasn't moving much at all. I returned him to his web in the plant, but he didn't build any more. He only moved about an inch in four hours; it wasn't looking good for him.
After hours on life support and a bit of physio to get him accustomed to his missing leg, Simon was moving around slightly more around the plant; he even moved out of the soil into the leaves again. Last night however, just before going to bed, I checked on his condition and I couldn't find him. Simon seems to have gone; this time for good. I think, considering his condition, he crawled off to a corner to assume his little place in spider heaven. After a day of being missing, I officially pronounced him dead; so long Simon.
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