Imagine this: You're relaxing on a fine, if overly warm, Saturday morning. Out of the corner of your eye you see something tentacled crawling up the brick wall of your house.
You stop relaxing.
You turn your head and take a better look. No tentacles. Just the dangling legs of a large, limp Huntsman Spider in the determined grip of a dangerously coloured insect inching its way, backwards, up the brick wall with a load far larger than itself does not bode well.
Something (your spider sense perhaps?) tingles.
It drops the spider a couple of times, and buzzed with enviable determination to what surely must be its feast. Over many barriers this vibrant beastie carries its load, only to leave it stashed behind the dense Hibiscus bush before mysteriously buzzing off.
After witnessing this event, we hit up Google for the answers. Were we being invaded by killer wasps? Did we need to call the exterminator and hide under mosquito netting?
The Spider Wasp, though occasionally prone to klepto-parasitism, however is of no particular danger to humans (except maybe Spider-Man).
For more information about this very cool insect (and a mug shot) click here: Australian Museum Fact Sheet
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Gang aft agley
You know the line that goes "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men..."? The continuation of it is "Gang aft agley".
I'm a 21st Century Aussie girl with no familiarity with the 18th century Scots language that Robert Burns was so eloquent with. Suffice it to say that 'gang aft agley', taken in isolation, is beyond my linguistic capabilities. I would probably guess "Go oft' ugly". However! In context I take a guess that it roughly means "often go pear-shaped" - which isn't too far off something going ugly.
That is a rough estimation of my plans for the 2 week break I had over the Christmas Period. I planned to be productive. I planned to work on new designs. I planned to be a shining example of industriousness. I was house sitting, so I thought that the fresh (quiet) environment would be helpful
Instead I managed to do a frightfully realistic impersonation of couch potato. There was an Xbox and a whole collection of DVDs - many of which I'd never seen. I did go swimming a couple of times, which was lovely... but hardly industrious.
It's a problem I often have when I'm having a holiday at home. I start off with great plans, but usually by the third day I'm reverting to "I'm chilling out" - formerly known as laziness. I'm looking forward to a weekend that isn't busy so I can spend some serious time at my workbench. I have some new designs I'd like to get cracking on, and some half-finished projects that are crying out for completion before the end of the month.
I'm a 21st Century Aussie girl with no familiarity with the 18th century Scots language that Robert Burns was so eloquent with. Suffice it to say that 'gang aft agley', taken in isolation, is beyond my linguistic capabilities. I would probably guess "Go oft' ugly". However! In context I take a guess that it roughly means "often go pear-shaped" - which isn't too far off something going ugly.
That is a rough estimation of my plans for the 2 week break I had over the Christmas Period. I planned to be productive. I planned to work on new designs. I planned to be a shining example of industriousness. I was house sitting, so I thought that the fresh (quiet) environment would be helpful
Instead I managed to do a frightfully realistic impersonation of couch potato. There was an Xbox and a whole collection of DVDs - many of which I'd never seen. I did go swimming a couple of times, which was lovely... but hardly industrious.
It's a problem I often have when I'm having a holiday at home. I start off with great plans, but usually by the third day I'm reverting to "I'm chilling out" - formerly known as laziness. I'm looking forward to a weekend that isn't busy so I can spend some serious time at my workbench. I have some new designs I'd like to get cracking on, and some half-finished projects that are crying out for completion before the end of the month.
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