May 14th

The Hubs found this guy crawling around our strawberry plants.

There were oodles more where he came from which kinda creeps me out but they’re *really* good at eating bugs that might ruin my berries so I called a truce with them.

Funny story…

We caught this guy a day or so ago, but I’ve been too busy to take his picture.  I finally had a few free moments so I got him out of his new “home” and got ready for a shot or two.

I needed a level surface to take pics on outside, and I didn’t want to be on the ground so I chose the hood of my car.

That was my first mistake.

Upon his release the little booger crawled IMMEDIATELY up the hood and INTO the engine of my car.

Faceplam.

Shoulda seen that one coming!

There’s no way he could stay there – too many openings INSIDE the car for him to plan a sneak attack on me later.

So I go inside to get the keys and stick my hand under the hood trying to pop the latch, all the time doing the “I hope I don’t touch the spider heebie jeebie” dance.  Just as I’m opening the hood, out crawls the spider – about an INCH away from my hand!

Have I mentioned that he’s about as long as my palm?

At this point I’m squealing like a teenage girl who just saw Bieber for the first time.

(for you new readers… I’m TERRIFIED of spiders.  And yes, I *do* get how ironic it is that they are one of my favorite things to photograph )

The spider is now hightailing it to Mexico (down the side of my car) and crawls UNDER the car.

Yup.  That’s not gonna work either.  He can crawl UP one of the tires and squeeze himself inside the car for the aforementioned sneak attack.

Jumping in the car (dude, there was a spider on the loose that I couldn’t see) I backed that sucker up as far as it would go.

Voila!  Mr. Spider found, recaptured, and photographed.

Whew.

Fortunately there were no witnesses to this debacle.