Spiders

Just wanted to place on record that I really like spiders. They do look a bit strange, having as many eyes as they do, and it is a bit annoying when one decides to take up residence in your shower cubicle or right above your bed - and, to be honest, I'd probably not react terribly well to something really large and hairy appearing out of a bunch of bananas - but on the whole I'm happy that they share my world with me. Of course, most of them do a fair bit of good: more spiders equals fewer flies, simple equation. And aren't spider webs just wonderful, especially on a dew-soaked autumn morning. I'm always a bit sad in autumn, because there are just so many spiders around, the world is full of them, my garden festooned with webs - and then, come the first frosts, most of them are gone. That's true for many different small creatures, of course, but I feel for spiders more than most things, because they seem to me to have a certain intelligence, and they make such beautiful things (or the ones that spin webs do, anyway).