Good job I'm not (gulp) scared of spiders

There was an article on the BBC News site this morning saying that more spiders than usual are expected in the UK this autumn because we had a wet autumn last year and a reasonably cool summer this year - perfect breeding conditions apparently. And it's definitely true in our neck of the woods. Each night recently we've had pretty big chunky house spiders scuttling across the lounge floor (luckily I usually sit with my feet up on the coffee table!). Other than that I haven't found more webs than usual in the house, but the ones outside are just magnificent. Some are so thick that they're more like cotton threads than webbing. And several have big spiders living in the middle just waiting for dinner to be served - as shown in the picture below.


It's lucky that spiders don't bother me I guess - although even I jumped earlier this evening as quite a big spider scuttled up my arm as I was feeding Emily. What does bother me however is the thought of a spider scuttling across her face as she's asleep - now that's creepy. Since I'm not really bothered by spiders, Isabel isn't either - in fact, if she sees a spider she descends upon it gleefully, saying "Sidney, I've missed you!". I think she may be going a little too far the other way...!