Re-homing

We are expecting house-guests; a certain degree of order and propriety is required. I was handed a feather duster and directed to look upwards. Spiders' webs come with attached spiders. I did not see this one as I was dusting and clearing, only after I'd finished and started to fill the kettle: it was sitting on the domed pipe from the tap. I persuaded it on to my hand and cupped the other one over it. Their feet are so soft that you can't feel anything on your palms to confirm it is still there

I threw it on to the flower bed; it was only as it landed  that I realised how prettily it is coloured and patterned. It has been one of those autumn days when the light makes everything radiant; I have taken several pictures - berries, seedheads, trees, grass - just because of the intensity of colours generated by the sun. My spider ran before I could grab my phone, but I realised it was under a leaf, with legs still showing. I turned the leaf over and the spider decided to sit tight rather than run - time for a quick snap

My app tells me the species is a Eurasian Armoured Long-jawed spider, which sounds slightly alarming. They bite insects and paralyse them with venom, but there is no recorded case of them biting a person. Most other sources just call it the 'Autumn Spider', because that is when it is around. September is the mating season, so maybe I have done it a favour by moving it from isolation in our roof window to outdoors. Their mating behaviour is that the male waits on the female's web until it catches something, then he takes her her dinner. 'How sweet' you might think, but a scientific paper I read commented dryly that this may be a 'sexual cannibalism reduction strategy'!

They are found across Europe and have been introduced to North America but are 'found primarily in UK'. I feel a vague sense of pride about them, and pleased that this one chose our kitchen window. Come back when the guests have gone