Country
Mouse has been in London for more than a month and is faced with a
very long stay. So far all goes well. London seems to be very warm,
very humid and occasionally sunny.
And
the universal truth still holds: one can tell the natives from the
tourists, the former wear more clothes. Londoners are muffled in
padded jackets and woolly scarves, booted feet run for buses.
Country Mouse stifles in pullover and pashmina over light weight
trousers.
The
great advantage of town over country is, of course, being able to go
shopping on foot and that until very late at night. This is just as
well for London dwelling places are rather short on storage place.
But
not short on desirable accommodation for insects, so far mostly
spiders. Our first morning in London we woke to find a spider, a
biggish black one, had snuggled down under my pillow, into a crease
in the sheet.
Of
course I took the sheet outside and shook it. Vigorously. Wrapping
the sheet round my arm I returned inside to make the bed. The spider
was still clinging to the sheet. Indignantly I swept him off onto
the floor. Two hours later, s/he or a cousin, was squatting the
bath.
 |
| Do not pass, spider busy |
Another
spider cousin, perhaps a second cousin twice removed because it was
tortoiseshell patterned, disputed our rights to the path up to the
road. I met it busily slinging the beginnings of its web from right
to left, across the York paving, starting from one micro box bush to
another. Carefully I lifted the two right hand strands and returned
them to the left. I went shopping. When I had returned, so had the
spider strands. This time I did left to right – in spider terms –
because I was going down the
steps.
This
exercise continues intermittently. But at least s/he stays outside.
