Last night ....

.... on arriving home I went to check on Esmeralda, as I do every night, just to make sure she's still around. I couldn't find her.
This morning, as we left for work, we had a look in the cold clear morning light.
We found her poor little husk of a corpse on the porch, under the bench. Long, yellow knobbled legs curled up.
Mr Brown picked her up and we placed her under the Pomegranate tree, tucked up in leaf litter, under her spun gold nest.
Perhaps, in the Spring, one of those eggs will bring us Esmeralda II.
Vale Esmeralda.

Everything fits so far, but I still don't know if she'll live ...

... "In the Golden Orb Weaving Spider group, it is common for a number of tiny (6 mm) males to live around the edges of a female's web, waiting for a mating opportunity. After mating, the female Golden Orb Weaving Spider wraps her single egg sac in a mass of golden silk, which is then hidden on foliage away from the web, disguised within a curled leaf or sprig of twigs."

She's abandoned her nest ...

... or she's finished it and her work is done.We found her, quite far down the pomegranate tree, on a stingy little web, no good for catching anything. I think this one is just for sitting in.She's thinner, emaciated, wasting away. Her abdomen is reminiscent of one of those super skinny models they keep sending down the catwalk, with their swimsuits hanging off them. Esmerelda is on the way out, she's dying.I think I can see eggs in the nest.
And, snapping these last pictures, I discovered her silvery-grey body (scroll down, she's beautiful) is actually covered with the finest grey fur, it's a pussy willow bud.I have to stop now, my eyes are leaking.

I'm hoping this does not end like Charlotte's Web ...

... but Mrs Golden Orb, Esmeralda to her nearest and dearest, has made herself the most beautiful golden cloud of a nest.She crouches over it protectively, not moving for rain or wind (and it's been raining and howling for days, as is traditional for my birthday long weekend).She's looking very thin, deflated, wrung out.A twitterer said yesterday, "any spider that avoids being eaten, gets to adulthood and has babies is a winner, and there ain't many winners".
She's right, Esmerelda has won so far as nature is concerned, but nature is a cruel, heartless bitch sometimes.

Spider alert ...

... this species does not live in our garden.
But O how I wish it did.
Ladies & Gentlepersons, I give you the Australian Peacock Spider.
I think you will all be as charmed as I was.

Via Geekologie

Tiny things I found in the garden yesterday ...

A tiny spider.Something's eggs.Another tiny spider.A ladybird in the lemon tree.

Mrs Spider's tiny, hairy husband ....

.... he's GONE!
There's a new, crumpled blob in the web, that looks a little spider like.
I think Mrs Spider may have exsanguinated her consort.
Oooo.
In other news, the taddies remain, uneaten and still utterly legless.

Spider report ...

... because the taddies have done nothing new or exciting *sigh*
So, I can report that we appear to have a good crop of spiderlings, so next season looks like a healthy one.
This is a nice empty egg sac. And this, well this is a LOT of babies. I've absolutely no idea what they are, I suspect St Andrews Cross or the Leaf Curler, since those are the mummy spiders that we have in profusion in the camellias, but I'd certainly not bet real money on it.This amazing fellow lives out the front, right next to the Golden Orb (more about her in a minute). I'm afraid the lighting wasn't very good so you can't see just how beautiful the blue markings are, like watered silk. This is Mrs Golden Orb, you can see her tiny consort at the top and her web decorations behind her. I know the tiny one is a him because he's so very hairy. Also, Professor Google told me. Unlike our lovely Garden Orb spiders out the back, Mrs Golden Orb doesn't tidy her web, dumping any debris nightly. No, she arranges it in neat(ish) rows. Bits of Crepe Myrtle and desiccated insect life alike. But isn't she the most amazing sliver in the evening light?

Spiders (fair warning) ...

... I'm not spider phobic.
Spider irritated at times, spider shocked on the odd occasion, but not generally frightened of our eight-legged friends.
It's been a monster year for the Brown-Mouse Long-Thin-Backyard spider crop this year. The buggers are everywhere. This may help explain why bees are so thin on the ground. Which, in turn, has me coming over all conflicted.Two of our favourites this year are big old garden orb weavers.One Missy weaves her web right outside the back door, just above the railing. Accordingly, we smash into her web, face first, quite a lot. We call her the human-web weaver.Her sister, locates her web perfectly placed to nab you, still sleep befuddled, as you turn to walk out into the garden at the bottom of the back stairs. She catches us more often than the other one. Lucky for us, the spider usually retires to a little spot off web, as it were, when the sun comes out. Often a carefully curled leaf, right near one of her anchor lines. So, although you may walk into the web, there's little fear you have a spider IN YOUR HAIR! They come out at night though. And Rupert's 'night portrait' setting catches them beautifully. I'm actually quite pleased with some of these night shots. It looks like the spiders are dancing on the night sky.

When Mr Brown calls ....

... "Mouse, come quick, bring Rupert".
It's always best to drop everything and do exactly as he says. So far he's never let me down on the exciting-discovery-in-the-garden stakes*.
This morning he thought he'd found me a stick insect! It wasn't though, he wasn't wearing his glasses and closer, pointy-mouse-eyed, inspection revealed 8 legs, not 6.Still, what an amazing looking beastie!
A quick google and I think I've identified her, a Deinopis Subrfua, also known as a Rufous-Net-Casting Spider. Her 2 beady little eyes right at the front are the give away I think.Rest assured, I'll be stalking Ms Deinopis until I catch her wielding her net.
In other, spider-related, news a golden orb weaver wove her web in the best human-catching spot, just near the back steps. We never actually got caught because the web always had something in it, be it some Jacaranda flowers, or a poor desiccated xmas beetle.I'm forgiving the killing of the harbinger of xmas because, as you can see, she also caught one of those blood sucking little fuckers, a mosquito.

* Nor the cute-bebe-animal-on- TV stakes, or the freaky-person-doing/wearing-something-odd stakes either!

In which Mr Brown goes too far ...

... we are a spider-friendly household.
We don't kill spiders for the sake of killing them. I water the buggers when it gets very hot and have been known to save them before cats pull all their legs off.
We like spiders. At least I thought so. Until today.
Mr Brown came rushing in from the back yard, all "quick, give me Rupert".
So I did, asking why?
"I've found a spider," was all he said.
Then he came in and he showed me the pictures.Holy fuck! Shudders of revulsion and fear tremored through me. I reverted to my most primitive monkey state and shrieked "DID YOU KILL IT?"
"No."
"Go, now, kill it, kill it, kill it, what if it bites Pingu? KILL IT."
"It won't bite Pingu and cats aren't affected by spider bites anyway". (Actually true.)Mr Brown went and checked the backyard spider identification chart we keep in the kitchen (what? Doesn't everyone?). He reported it was a male trapdoor, not a male funnelweb but that did not calm or reassure me one little bit. Something deep down in the oldest, most reactionary part of my brain just screamed KIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.
But he wouldn't. He wouldn't let me kill it either. He practically gave him a little dish of cream and a pat on the head.I got Mr Brown to shake out my boots before I put them on. I may never go outside again! Errrrk, just look at his beady little eyes *shudder*

Why I changed my Twitter name ...

... my Twitter name was MorganMouse, I'm on a theme clearly.
Anyway, the other day I was visiting a work friend (as opposed to just a colleague), who's very high up in the organisation for which I work, the Government Department that Shall Not Be Named. I spotted a report-briefing thing on her desk with the word TWITTER in the title.
"Hello" said I, "what's all this then?"
"Pfft" said she, "we may get a Twitter account".
"Shit, no, not for reals, surely?"
"Maybe, probably not, but possibly".
"CRAP, I'd better go change my account name, or delete it, or lock it down or something!" Grabbing a copy of the report, I dashed from her office, her office with a WINDOW.
"O, do you tweet?" I heard as I flew on winged heels to my desk.

So, Morgan, it's not a very common name and I'm the only Morgan in the organisation. While I don't tweet much about work, I was still filled with hot-cheeked horror at the thought of work folk stumbling across MorganMouse and possibly putting two and two together.
So now I'm MsBrownMouse. Since Mr Brown is not Mr Brown's actual, real-life name (I know, we are SO sneaky, we should totally be spies or something), I don't think a link will ever be made.
And so, on a completely different subject, as I went out to feed Mrs Poss yesterday evening I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, what looked like a big, fat, red spider.It was not, it was a leaf-curler spider who had made her house out of a hot-pink camellia petal.

It's past noon ...

... So I can assure you this is not an April Fool's joke. It is a joke though.

Ms Spider ...

... St Andrew's Cross again.
Early in the season the X in the middle of the webs is quite spiffy, towards the end of the season it all gets a bit half-arsed and skewif. Still, I'm amazed they can do it at all.Thanks to the macro lens (which I'm still learning to drive) I can finally see those amazing hairy mouth parts. I'm finding it difficult to get the eyes though. Still, I can but try.

And finally, because I can, spider knees.

More Spiders ...

... you know the drill, look away bladibla.
So, last night, post freakout, pre beddiebyes, Mr Brown called me out to the end room to view a big huntsman he'd found. Not as big as his hand but pretty bloody big.
Ooo, he said, are those babies all over her?
Well, not all over her for long. They scattered a bit.Turns out mummy huntsmen produce an egg sac and guard it, without eating, for about 3 weeks. Some even carry their egg sac under their bodies while moving about. My dad can confirm that, he once had to fish a spider egg sack out of the bin when mummy spider came back for it.Then after hatching, the babies stay with mum for several weeks, going through several molts until they are hardened up a bit and disperse. That shot is as close as I could macro up on a baby, without risking mum jumping up an biting me on the nose.
We didn't particularly want them dispersing throughout the Brown Mouse House, so we gently blew and swept them out the back door.That last shot is actually a leaf-curl spider hanging her legs out of her carefully curled leaf and into the evening sunset.

Look away if you don't like spiders ...

... I do, although this article in the local rag yesterday had me wearing shoes while I watered the tomatoes last night. Unheard of in summer, but the thought of running into one of those bastards, or of one running across my foot, had the birkies on the footsies.
Anyway, I was playing with my macro lens today, I need lessons I think, and came up with some close ups for your delight and edification. The twinkling eyes and amazing grey velvet fur of a St Andrew's Cross Spider.I think that round thing at the top is the orifice the web silk comes out of. I've always admired the yellow stripes of the St Andrew's Cross Spider, but up close the pomegranate red is just beautiful. It's texture is also very pomegranate-like.Extreme close up of the stripe. This particular spider threw, or seemed to throw, a black something at me when I came right up close. I hope it wasn't her dinner.And this, well it shows the lovely yellow and the fluffy webbing they use to make the X in the middle of the web.