mostly david ephgrave

 I was just about to extricate a spider from my bathroom using the classic postcard and glass technique, when it divebombed out of sight.  It was like the eight-legged little feller was acting on military orders to avoid capture at all costs. Whether it had meant to fall from such a great height (on the wall, a few centimetres from the ceiling) the tactic worked as, at time of press, I haven't seen him wandering about. I'm happy to bide my time as, before long, I'll seem him. He can't live in a hidden damp, patch forever - or maybe he can; I don't know how these things work.  The spider problem is fairly prevalent in our house; so much so that postcards are strewn about, in preparation for imminent threat. For some reason our ideal postcard of choice tends to be one of many the many A6 flyers from Doggett & Ephgrave shows; it's good to be able to put them for second use. *cough* Camden *chough* The downside is you get confronted by your own face a heck of ...

This was the second most popular story on the BBC News website today. Tomorrow they’ll teach us how to suck eggs. To be fair, that’s actually a screen-grab of the foot of the article, which was a piece on how the UK's wet summer is causing giant house spiders to head indoors. It read like a plot from a B-movie, only more ‘arachnoristic’ (a term I invented myself, meaning ‘containing a greater spider-to-Jeff-Daniels ratio’). Arachnophobes around the country were probably slamming their windows, bolting their doors and brandishing their slippers with intent, after browsing the website. It’s a call to arms against the many-legged beast. You could argue the warning was a wise move on the part of the BBC: last year, I ejected a spider from my bathroom that was so big, I was afraid to use the back door the following day for fear of reprisals. It was large enough to be included on the electoral roll. He looked like the one at the end of the TV movi...