European Nursery Web Spider

A day spent in the garden which was punctuated with a visit to the vaccination centre for my second jab. Hurrah, I am now all vaxed up! 

I planted some more plants, potted up some plants, tied in some climbers, dug up some bulbs and cleaned out most of the greenhouse. It now only has a few foxglove seedlings for next year and some chilli plants and is looking very empty. 
The only things left to plant out now are the cosmos and zinnias which are just hardening off for a few more days. 

I was hoping for a butterfly today as I've seen a few whites around, but couldn't get one to settle. I had a wander around the garden and noticed this spider. Apparently it is a European Nursery Web Spider and is poisonous with a small 'p'. It has venom that is strong enough to kill its prey but not strong enough to bother people or pets. It is between a quarter of an inch to an inch in size, but can spread its legs out as far as 3 inches.  This species, like many others, is known to engage in sexual cannibalism, where the male is eaten after mating! 

We are off for lunch at my parents tomorrow and I said I'd make a pavlova, so have that to do soon before a double bill of Casualty!