Come all without, come all within...

I have a five-legged spider living in my garden right now. I call her 'The Mighty Quinn'. Losing three legs has had no effect on her ability to build a web, I will share a photo before this update is done (if I can remember).

                                      

Samuel Butler lived in the 1600s. He was an English poet and satirist. Google him and you will no doubt find many quotes. I have chosen just two to illustrate the narrative of this part of my blog update:

"A News-monger is a Retailer of Rumour, that takes up upon Trust, and sells as cheap as he buys. He deals in a perishable Commodity, that will not keep: for if it be not fresh it lies upon his Hands, and will yield nothing. True or false is all one to him; for Novelty being the Grace of bothe, a Truth grows stale as soon as a Lye..."

Four centuries ago the press were obviously already practicing what a friend of mine, and former journalist once said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story". I couldn't reveal his name here but...it was Brian Johnson!

Almost four hundred years later, what has changed? That IS a rhetorical question by the way: witness these examples...

Yes it's the annual tabloid press scaremongering! Actually, it's not even just the tabloids.

If it's not too sensationalistic in itself, I would like to use Adolf Hitler's term here..it's a "Big Lie." In fact, let's stay with the WW2 analogies and add this attributed to Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." 

Fiction: Something that is invented or untrue.

Just to put all this nonsense in perspective, here's spider expert, and all round good guy Tone Killick's response when I asked him for a quote:

The fact is not one of these so called spider bite articles has any factual basis and one common theme that runs through every story is "I didn't actually see what bit me" In this day and age of click bait, the larger the fear inducing headline, the more clicks equals more money generated. That's the bottom line. The tabloids are not concerned with the amount of fear they are creating nor the species of spiders wiped because of these stories.

Hmmm...wise words indeed and redolent of a certain young lady making headlines right now?

"We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!"

                                                                                             Greta Thunberg

Okay! As Oscar Wilde said, "Life is too important to be taken seriously."

If you can't laugh at yourself, call me and I'll laugh at you - I don't think that was one of his?

Moving on: We have just had the autumn equinox and Samuel Butler had a fine quote about that too: “Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.” 

Apparently autumn/fall was once known by a different name: according to the written record, harvest is the earliest name for the third season of the year. It’s found in Old English as hærfest, a word of Germanic stock, perhaps with underlying, ancient sense of “picking, plucking.”

I once tried to construct a poem around those two words, I was okay with rhyming picking, I had kicking - licking - ticking - flicking. Plucking had me stumped though!

Notice anything wrong with this magazine cover?

If it takes you awhile, don't feel bad about it. I've had this magazine since 2011 and it took a friend to point out the mistake recently.

Next up, let's talk about a tiny insect that is neither a moth, nor a fly, yet it is called a Moth-fly. It's also known by the common names of Drain fly - Filter fly - Sewage fly and Owl-midge. 

So many names for such a small critter (about 5mm max) in fact one for each day it lives because 5 days seems to be about the extent of its life. Imagine that! They are totally harmless, although like humans, they can become annoying in large numbers. 

I've been lucky with my bird bath this year. Through 2018 I was plagued by insects falling in and being unable to climb out. Just had one bumble bee this year and I happened to spot it in time to effect a rescue and  place it on a flower whilst it dried out. 

I had several large white butterfly caterpillars pupate a few weeks ago but only one eclosed (emerged) and so I guess the rest will now over-winter and become a spring brood in 2020. They are wonderful looking things though...

I rotated this for better viewing

Time to be brave - I know there are those amongst us who still can't even look at spider pictures. But if Lady Hale can get away with wearing a spider brooch in court, I am sure I can get away with sharing the spider in my garden that I christened The Mighty Quinn...

The judge was hailed as the “spider woman” and the brooch described as “utterly badass”. 

And so...

Yes, she may only have 5 limbs but she constructed a reasonably tidy web that worked so well she had snared her first meal within a few hours. And so she somehow managed to lose three legs, but do you think there are the correct number between these two harvestmen? I think not!

Harvestmen share a trait with insects and have what scientists call the “alternate tripod gait,” where three legs touch the ground at any given point.

That elegant stride is initially hard-hit by the loss of a leg. In  harvestmen , the lost leg doesn’t grow back.

But they persevere. A harvestman that’s missing one, two, or even three legs can recover a surprising degree of mobility by learning to walk differently. Which is probably a good thing as there is about a 60% chance that they will lose at least one limb at some point.

 which all reminds me of this classic Pete and Dud sketch...

Peter Cook: Now, Mr. Spiggott, you, a one-legged man, are applying for the role of Tarzan.

Dudley Moore: Yes, right.

Peter Cook: A role traditionally associated with a two-legged artiste.

Dudley Moore: Yes, correct, yes, yes.

Peter Cook: The leg division, Mr. Spiggott. You are deficient in the leg division to the tune of one. Your right leg I like. It's a lovely leg for the role. As soon as I saw it come in, I said, "Hello! What a lovely leg for the role!"

Dudley Moore: Ah!

Peter Cook: I've got nothing against your right leg.

Dudley Moore: Ah!

Peter Cook: The trouble is -- neither have you.

I will leave you with this final image of what I think is a male honey bee. Probably the very same species that Mighty Quinn was making a meal out of. This one however was quite safe in another part of the garden...or was it?

One final thought to muse on until I return with another update: “When a male honey bee climaxes during sex, his testicles explode and he dies.”