Incy Wincy

The best present my sister ever gave me, and probably one of my most favourite possessions ever, is the spider catcher. It's one of the many things I inherited from her when she moved to Cyprus. I guess she thought she'd be fighting a losing battle taking it out there.

I love my spider catcher (which I have also used to catch bees, wasps and flies. Oh yes, it's versatile). I was always a bit fearful of spiders until I got my spider catcher. Then every time I caught one, I'd spend a few minutes looking at it with my son before releasing it in the garden. Here he's got his magnifying glass out for a close up. It just eventually took away the fear (that and the film Charlotte's Web) and I have no problem with them at all now - I've even held them in my own bare hands in an emergency!

However, things went horribly wrong after this photo was taken. I opened the lid of the spider catcher to let it out but accidentally shut the lid and snapped most of it's legs off. It fell to the ground and then a gang of ants swarmed all over it. And then Mr. Cat decided to go outside and trod all over the lot of them. But this doesn't usually happen.