A day off and another spider. A cute one this time.

It is an unofficial long weekend here in Melbourne so as you read this post there is a good chance I am slacking off relaxing in some way. It has been beautiful weather here for the last few days, lets hope it continues until Wednesday when we all have to go back to normality.

Of course today (Monday) isn’t a government sanctioned day off but most people are following the great Aussie tradition of taking a day off work for the slightest reason.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, Melbourne Cup day, which really means most of Melbourne grinds to a halt with many people either attending some sort of racing celebration or going camping for the weekend. We went with option 3 which means staying home, enjoying the sunny weather and catching up on all those things in the garden that were neglected while we were away.

Over the weekend the Man even made a quick sortie up the Hill with the mower until the kids dobbed him in. I stomped up there, pointed out how close he was to some of my precious orchids and sent him back to the shed. I think he was quietly pleased that he got any of it mowed at all and I admit that I let him do the bottom (orchid-free) bit before I stopped him just so he would think he had slipped one by me 😉

The kids and I found this jumping spider on one of the Agapanthus in the back yard while we were wandering around. Agapanthus are horribly invasive and we really want to get rid of them but their tangled roots are the only thing keeping a steep part along the fenceline from washing into the neighbour’s garden. Until we can be bothered building a huge wall to keep the soil in one spot we will let them keep doing their job and just snip off the flowers each season before they get a chance to spread their myriad seeds throughout the neighbourhood.

As you might have guessed, I love taking photos of spiders but I don’t have much tolerance for them, walking on me means they get the boot. This little guy though, I can only describe him as cute. Sorry to go against the grain of my normal spider smashing attitude but look at the photo below…

I have found that normally spiders don’t seem to react to people too much unless they are running away from you, or running at you (Huntsmen *shudder*). Jumping spiders though, they will see you looking at them and bounce over for a closer look at you with their giant eyes, always looking like they are about to say something interesting.

I was able to get a heap of photos of this guy in different poses by getting Number 1 to stand in different places and attract his attention. He was very interested in what was going on, bouncing around from leaf to leaf to follow the noises just like a puppy. 🙂

Look into my eyes….