live and let live

Spiders and other creepy-crawlies love our house. This is mostly because English hubby gently captures and releases them into the wild (where they have to fend for themselves) although the fact that we rarely vacuum the ceilings probably has something to do with it too. When we first moved into our house, there was a gargantuan orb spider living in a corner of the patio where its web was constantly in danger of us tearing it. E-hub built a wooden frame around the web to protect it, on which I banged my head too many times to count. When Sweetpea was three and playing with our neighbour's son in the garden, she watched with round eyes as he kicked, squished and stomped every living thing he could find. When she told me about it later, I reminded her that she should feel comfortable telling her friends that we don't do that at our house. Deliberately, anyway. And the rules don't count if it's an ant trail making it's way toward the pantry. Then all bets are off. But you don't get into the grey areas with a three year old. A few months later I heard her hollering at the same friend "We don't DO THAT HERE!!!".

white spider and calla lily, originally uploaded by à la mosey.

This little arachnid is living in a calla lily right outside our door at the moment. Sweetpea is fascinated and checks morning and evening to see if it's still there and dragged me away from making dinner last night to take a photograph. Although we joke about how our children will probably be our opposites as they mature - wanting to move themselves away from their parents physically and spiritually and (gulp) politically - I'm hoping that Sweetpea's intense fascination with nature and the environment and her innate desire to crouch down and see what's happening at ground level will persevere. Plus her enthusiastic (and possibly occasionally off-putting?) penchant for asking every cashier and random person on the street "Have you heard about climate change?". Stay tuned for an upcoming guest post from Sweetpea on this topic.