The night before last:

LAST NIGHT, same time, same place:

SAME SPIDER.

And to further illustrate just how big it was, I took a picture of it next to my lens cap for scale.

That yoghurt pot is now officially on standby for tonight. 

Do not, I repeat DO NOT scroll down if you don't like them. Filmchris, if you're reading this, that especially means you. There, I've issued my warning, so therefore I cannot be held responsible for any mental health issues that may arise from seeing the picture below.

I was sitting at my computer last night, happily minding my own business, when THIS suddenly ran through the room…

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(OK, this is your final warning, don't feel obliged to look if you really don't want to…..)

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BLEURGH!

For reference, the depth of the white skirting is just under two inches. So we are talking BIG spider.

I squealed like a complete girl naturally, and jumped on the chair so as not to go anywhere near it that it might make it move, whereas Barnaby in a show of defiant feline fearlessness decided to walk up to it and take a big sniff. It moved, I squealed again, then Young Father came in to see what all the fuss was about. He looked, and then he too took a squealing jump backwards. Did I mention that this spider was big?

Between the three of us we managed to imprison it in a yoghurt pot and throw it outside, but it was no easy task what with all the squealing and simultaneous nervous giggling fits. Add to that its turbo charged legs and I'm surprised we managed to get it out at all. I have to confess that it was Young Father who did most of it, whereas my main role was behind the scenes jumping from chair to chair whilst flailing my arms and chanting "ohmygoodness, ohmygoodness" over and over in a perfectly female manner. I'm sure it helped though. It created good ambiance.

Anyway, I hope I didn't upset anyone by putting up that picture. I did put up a warning. But if you really get a kick out of seeing spider pics, you can see more of them here.

*runs and hides* 

Absolutely nothing like it. Actually I have two, but one of them lives away so I don’t get to see her much these days. They are among the people I miss the most when I’ve lived overseas, as no matter how well you somebody as a friend, there is never that intuitive bond between the two of you that you have with a sister. It’s priceless. It’s precious. My sisters can read me like a book.

When my sister Malph saw me feeling down on Tuesday afternoon, she suggested that I needed some form of activity to take things off my mind. So when she suggested that we go out into the fields and take photographs for her webstore, I jumped at the chance. Last time we did this it was a BUCKETLOAD of fun, it was one of my favourite days of the Spring.

My sister designs and makes her own range of clothing and had just finished part of a new collection of linen wrap dresses that she wanted photographing. She’s also trying out some designs for rustic aprons, so we thought we’d try to take some pictures of those too. Choosing a location took a little bit of thought, but we ended up going down to the fields at a local farm and running around in the barley.

We had such a good time doing this! If you click on any of the thumbnails below it’ll take you to a slideshow in flickr of some of the pictures that we took.

And Malph was right, it did take my mind off things. I could have so easily spent the afternoon moping around, but instead I got to spend a couple of hours in the outdoors, having fun with my sister.

There has always been a tradition in my family that whenever we get birthday money or Christmas money, the rule is that it has to be used for something that we have always wanted. This could be either something to own, or something to do. This all started when Mutti was a little girl when she used to get presents from her Auntie Dos, and I'm very glad she passed it onto us. I'm planning to continue this tradition for as long as I can too, as if you're not careful how you spent it, it would be all to easy for birthday money to blend into the rest of one's bank account and be frittered away on things like bus fares and lunch.

This year I used my birthday money for something that I have wanted for a VERY long time. For at least the past four years I have been ogling the Barbour 'Newmarket Coat', and when I mentioned to my parents on a rather chilly yesterday morning that I had left all my winter jackets in California, to them it was the very obvious choice for my birthday treat. They were so keen for me to get it that within an hour of the decision, we were taking a family outing out to the nearest place where they sold them. It just so happens that the shop was in a very nice garden centre which I'm sure had nothing to do with selling the trip to them at all, but it was certainly a nice way to spend a lunchtime.

I LOVE this coat. I'm going to be wearing it for YEARS. It feels like it was made for me. And much to my joy the weather stayed cool into the afternoon, so I was able to wear it. 

Today is a very sad day for me.

A little over three weeks since marrying my sweetie, I am now in England alone *sniff*. You see, in the wee hours of this morning, I had to drive MrNin to the airport and put him on a plane back to the US *sigh*. But now marks a new chapter, as now begins all the reams of greencard paperwork that will eventually get me back in the country as Mr Bush doesn’t like us foreigners. He thinks we’re all child molesting terrorists with AIDS and smallpox, and that we’re going to cross the international border and infect all the Americans with TB. So in order to be allowed back in, I have to darned well prove him otherwise. But that could take as long as nine months to achieve….if we’re lucky, there’s a chance it could take even longer. In the meantime, I will be staying with my parents back here in England, in the house that I grew up in, in the room that after all these years I still call ‘my own‘.

I always try to look on the bright side though, and my silver lining is that I get to spend nine quality months in the heart of my family, with childhood friends all nearby too. Once I’m out in America, far away from home, I will no doubt be wishing for a chance like this to come around again, so I’m definitely going to try to make the most of it.

But I will still miss my boy, my husband, my friend. I know we have email, and the phone and blackberries and all that sort of thing, but I hope I will get to actually SEE him again soon.

Even Barnaby misses him already. He spent the entire rest of the morning with his ears back, staring at the wall.

I miss you already, baby. At least you got to go first class.

Today marks the wedding anniversary of my parents. 40 years ago today they were married on a sunny afternoon up in London, and 40 years since the day, their's is still a marriage that is going strong.

Happy wedding anniversary Mutti and Young Father! I hope that our marriage will be as happy and as long-lasting as yours!

I love looking at their old wedding photos, they're classic and timeless. If you're interested, I've got more in my flickr account, and you can see them by clicking here. But my favourite photo of all is the first one I posted- that's my uncle sneaking a cheeky kiss on his new sister-in-law's cheek. He was also best man at the wedding.

Speaking of wedding photos….I'm EXCITED BEYOND WORDS to see that friends of ours and a couple of family members have started to upload pictures they took from our wedding on August 4th! I can't wait to tell you about it and show you the pro pics. in the meantime, here are some of my favourites out of the ones that our friends and family have posted.