Melbourne Trapdoor Spider
Well, as some people who stayed with me might know, I have been tormented by a spider who's web I could see, but I'd never seen the spider, making it somewhat difficult to identify them, and I like to know who lives in my garden. There were basically funnel type webs into the ground. Recently, I had the good luck to catch the spider responsible (Yay!). It is most likely that it is a Melbourne Trapdoor spider. Despite their name this spider does not have a trapdoor, but does have silk lined tunnels going into the ground. It's bite is not dangerous. Manson (my melbourne trapdoor spider) seems to be quite a shy spider, and sluggish when moving around. I will probably let him go back into the garden. I haven't managed to get a good photo of him:(
Today I was a bit naughty and I bought The Whitlams latest cd. I'm listening to it now, it is a bit different to some of their older stuff, and I will have to listen to it a few times before I can decide which songs I like. One song I definately like is "the curse stops here" which I heard at a concert of theirs once. Many of the original band members have died of suicide and alcohol related deaths and in fact Tim is the only one left.
Yesterday Matt and I bought a mushroom farm box thing. Basically so you can grow your own mushrooms. It's our easter present to each other. I am very excited about it! I do hope that it works and we get our own mushrooms. If it does, i will certainly put photos on here. They'll be very dull as they will just be photos of mushrooms, but they'll be mushrooms I grew myself! Obviously Muppit won't find such a concept exciting, having worked in very poor work conditions in an actual mushroom farm, and I'm glad I haven't had that experience to spoil it for me!
Matthew's latest bread experiment is going quite well. He has made a very, very yummy lightly malted sourdough fruit and spice loaf. It has big bits of dried figs and apricots and other yummy things in it, and is sooo good to eat hot out of the oven! The other day there was a hot-cross bun making class at the bread supply store matt goes to, and we forgot about it and didn't go... Now Matthew is saying he can't make hot-cross buns as he didn't get to go.... So if anyone knows how to make them, don't hold back - email him! I actually have this memory that when I was quite little and lived in Townsville my mum maybe went to some kind of cooking thing and that one time they made hot-cross buns in that... Maybe I'll check with her if she remembers that.
Sad news on the leopard slug plague. Unfortunately for the leopard slugs they decided to turn on us and started to eat our spinach and lettuce and other plants. Our plants are still a little bit too little for sharing with the wildlife, particularly the non-native pest ones. So last night we laid out some snail/slug pellets..... This morning there were 8 or so slugs in their dying throws on our garden... I feel a little mean, but what can you do?
Well, I'm going to go and keep Matt company, I think he's getting a little lonely.
Today I was a bit naughty and I bought The Whitlams latest cd. I'm listening to it now, it is a bit different to some of their older stuff, and I will have to listen to it a few times before I can decide which songs I like. One song I definately like is "the curse stops here" which I heard at a concert of theirs once. Many of the original band members have died of suicide and alcohol related deaths and in fact Tim is the only one left.
Yesterday Matt and I bought a mushroom farm box thing. Basically so you can grow your own mushrooms. It's our easter present to each other. I am very excited about it! I do hope that it works and we get our own mushrooms. If it does, i will certainly put photos on here. They'll be very dull as they will just be photos of mushrooms, but they'll be mushrooms I grew myself! Obviously Muppit won't find such a concept exciting, having worked in very poor work conditions in an actual mushroom farm, and I'm glad I haven't had that experience to spoil it for me!
Matthew's latest bread experiment is going quite well. He has made a very, very yummy lightly malted sourdough fruit and spice loaf. It has big bits of dried figs and apricots and other yummy things in it, and is sooo good to eat hot out of the oven! The other day there was a hot-cross bun making class at the bread supply store matt goes to, and we forgot about it and didn't go... Now Matthew is saying he can't make hot-cross buns as he didn't get to go.... So if anyone knows how to make them, don't hold back - email him! I actually have this memory that when I was quite little and lived in Townsville my mum maybe went to some kind of cooking thing and that one time they made hot-cross buns in that... Maybe I'll check with her if she remembers that.
Sad news on the leopard slug plague. Unfortunately for the leopard slugs they decided to turn on us and started to eat our spinach and lettuce and other plants. Our plants are still a little bit too little for sharing with the wildlife, particularly the non-native pest ones. So last night we laid out some snail/slug pellets..... This morning there were 8 or so slugs in their dying throws on our garden... I feel a little mean, but what can you do?
Well, I'm going to go and keep Matt company, I think he's getting a little lonely.
posted by earthkissed | 4:44 pm
9 Comments:
for some reason, i always think of the sylvia plath poem about mushrooms...
Hurrah for it not being a funnelweb, and the slugs clearly got what they deserved, going in and wreaking havoc on your plants! And i think that mushrooms are interesting if someone you know has grown them!
I don't think you got funnel webs in your parts?? THe good think about Funnel Web Spiders is that when you see them, even if you've never seen one before, there's no mistaking there mean, nasty MFs. I came across one once in my back yard in the Blue mountains and even though it was a fairly small one, it reared up at me like a cobra and I nearly shat myself!!! And I don't have a problem at all with spiders normally. Weirdly I have a slug phobia. Seriously. They totally freak me out. Leopard slugs are the only slugs that eat other slugs, but still I'm not sympathising with the slug. Ick! I went to a mushroom farm in Malaysia, and they had mushies growing out of holes cut in bamboo, I'm quite interested in what your farm looks like.
How's the Whitlam CD going? I didn't know that Tim was the only surviving original member. He is the sexiest man behind a piano I have ever witnessed, and I am so not a groupie kinda chick!!
I love that..."the cool think about Funnel Web Spiders..."
my mushroom farm is quite boring, it is just a cardboard box with mushroom infested soil in it and some stuff over the top. I bought it as a kit from bunnings! I like the idea of growing it in bamboo though, much funkier! I don't know if we have funnel webs here.... probably not I suppose:)
PS - I went and read the poem --> it is very apt, that is exactly what the mushrooms (the wild non-edible kind) have been doing in our garden!
Hi all. Yes, victoria does get funnel web spiders - we have two species - Flinders funnel web (one of which i came across whilst camping at Shoreham) and the Victorian Funnelweb, neither of which is as dangerous as the very agressive male Sydney Funnelweb. Most other states have funnelwebs too. They are a they are a sub family of the Tarantula.
Hi all again, Sorry, it was a victorian funnelweb i came across. The Flinders variety is mostly distributed throughout South Australia and isn't verified in Melbourne. Vic Funnelwebs are supposedly only Dandenong Ranges area but I debate that!
I have certainly come across spiders where they aren't officially verified, so I don't tend to get too caught up in what the official version is!
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