How would you get along with your sibling(s), parent(s), or any other person you’ve known for a long time — if you only met them for the first time today?
“Hello Fred, nice to see you have returned to my kitchen corner.”
“Fred, no, Fred was my grandfather. My dad was Fred Junior and now it’s time to introduce a new name in the family. I am Cyril, son of Fred Junior. Where shall I start Mrs. Angloswiss. Dad said to just hover around and wait for something interesting to land in the web. I must say you seem to have quite a lot of flies this year.”
“Oh yes I do Cyril, they are everywhere, especially in the morning when I eat my breakfast in the kitchen. They never seem to fly into your web. Do you think you might be doing something wrong Cyril.”
“I am hovering and waiting Mrs. Angloswiss. We are not hunters. We are not equipped with fly swotting hands at the tips of our legs. We are the patient kind. If a fly happens to get lost on its flight he will be caught in my web. It is then we pounce and make a lunch packet for later digestion. We indoor spiders are more into the smaller kind of flying insect. Fruit flies are welcome, but you have no fruit.”
“I keep the fruit outside in the summer Cyril, otherwise the fruit bowl is full of flies.”
“You see Mrs. Angloswiss, that is why I am so thin. You are starving me of my rightful food. Oh, just a minute, yes got him.”
“What was that?”
“One of the mini flies just entered my web.”
“You mean that dark speck in your web. I can hardly see it.”
“Mrs. Angloswiss you do not have to see all the flies. As long as we can absorb them, it suffices. And there goes another one.”
“I don’t see it.”
“But I do. If you want one of the big game hunters, you have to go outside. I saw that Jeremy has made a nice nest this morning, although he said he spun the original web yesterday and it was washed away in the evening. Be careful where you aim your hose Mrs. Angloswiss.”
“I didn’t see Jeremy. I was just giving the garden a good soak.”
“All very well, but be careful where you soak. Jeremy spent hours weaving his web and it was all gone in less than a minute. Look where you spread the water Mrs. Angloswiss. No consideration from the humans. We are only doing our job.”
“But some of us do not like spiders Cyril. My blogging colleague Marilyn …….”
“We know all about Marilyn Mrs. Angloswissl She is notorious in the spider world. Some of us spiders do not like humans Mrs. Angloswiss, but we have to live with them.”
“Well, I did look after your granddad and daddy over the years. They were very helpful in keeping the other insects away, except for the flies.”
“Glad to hear it Mrs. Angloswiss. My daddy told me that if you want a safe and comfortable place during the summer, then hang around in Mrs. Angloswiss kitchen. She says where there is a spider there is a home. Now go and take a photo of Jeremy, I am sure he would appreciate being shown to all the nice bloggers (except Marilyn), but be careful where you tread. I think Mabel may be in the garden.”
“Who is Mabel?”
“That’s Jeremy’s wife. Jeremy said she is transporting her egg sack at the moment and we don’t want to destroy Jeremy’s next generation, now do we.”
So here is a photo of Jeremy with his lunch next to him in the web. I did not see Mabel, but I think she was busy with the family protection plan.
Daily Prompt: Delayed Contact – Meet Son of Fred Junior – Cyril the new Spider in the Kitchen
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
I do wish I liked these tiny creatures better. I have gotten to where I don’t scream and try to bash a little one with a whole newspaper, or something, so I suppose that’s progress.
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When I moved into the country I discovered that they were there first and we only have one biting sort here, but they live outside. I cannot kill spiders, I just transport them to the outdoors. I brush down the cobwebs indoors, but I just cannot kill them.
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I’m pretty allergic to the bite of the common house spider (the sort that people will tell you doesn’t bite people) so unless the thing is literally incapable of sinking fangs into me, I’m not making distinctions between “biting” and “non-biting,” but maybe “deadly” and “non-deadly.”
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I’m the same in that I normally don’t kill spiders (I also transport them outdoors). I have one that lives in my skylight and one that lives in my bathroom window. So long as they stay there, they’re safe from me. 🙂
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We are lucky to live in a country where there are no dangerous spiders. I just let them live their lives, they generally keep themselves to themselves.
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I believe our state has only one venomous spider… Maybe two. The black widow and the brown recluse, though the government says the brown recluse doesn’t live here (too cold). I’ve heard that it does.
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Awww… I love spiders.. just not on me. That’s a problem; I swat first and ask questions later. I do love your post! Very whimsical and fun and I often assign personalities to things and critters around me as well so I can imagine this quite well.
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I have sort of got used to living with them side by side. They rare come close. Just now and again one might hover but I can remove it (carefully) and put it in the garden.
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I miss Marilyn’s comment here. Generally she is the first one to give her mind on your imaginary world. I am praying for her dogs. Feeling sad for Nan. As regards the post I just loved what you weaved with your words and imagination. Very creative and unusual stuff I get to read here. Your pictures are so stunning and the zoom just right.
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Yes, Marilyn is going through a hard time at the moment. Our pets are part of the family. If only spiders could talk, I wonder what they would say.
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Gee whiz. Keeping track of the family spider tree. That’s a lot of keeping track, considering the possibility of thousands (tens of thousands?) of siblings. I had trouble keeping track of only two. Those long-legged spiders (we call them “Daddy Long Legs”) are the only ones that don’t frighten me. I appreciate their willingness to eat other bugs, too. I try to not hurt them. Nice post!!
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Admittely there are thousands in the spider family tree, but our spider must be from the same dynasty. He spins his web in the same corner in the kitchen every summer and always waves 7 of his legs as a greeting when he sees me. He needs the 8th leg to hold on to the web.
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Black widows frighten me but otherwise, I’m good with the spider world. Salutations to Jeremy, Mabel and Cyril.
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Indoors we just have the harmless stay-in-the-corner spider. Outside there are others. The nursery web spider that seems to have hundred of children that she looks after and one day disappears to leave them to their own devices. We have no really dangerous spiders, no black windows, just a common garden spider with a cross on his back (Kreuzspinne) that is known for a bite, but nothing fatal.
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Great photos!
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At last, after a few years, I have the hang of the macro photo. I do not have a macro lens, but can zoom in quite close.
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You are doing wonderful macro photos. I’m impressed.
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Nice pictures. Cyril seems friendly. I wonder if Jeremy is friends with the new metal-bird yet. 🙂
In our house we hate spiders. And if they are seen in the kitchen, lets just say all dishes are washed afterwards, as if they were poisoned or something hehehe.
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