Leaving Ari (see previous two posts) to her own devices for a while, we set out for Sainsbury’s. The shopping needs to be done come hell or high water.

White Lion Street – cold and misty

It was colder than ever today at -1°C, according to the Met Office, and misty with it. I think the damp air made it feel even chillier.

Luggage trolley from Euston Station
Photo by Tigger

While I was photographing the weather, Tigger was photographing this luggage trolley outside the Castle pub. It has been there for quite some time, minding its own business, troubling no one and troubled by none. It comes from Euston Station which, though not far away as the crow flies, is, I imagine, quite a step for someone pushing this sort of trolley. How it arrived here, whether by bus, taxi or pedestrian power, I do not know. Will it one day be reunited with its fellows or will it languish on the mean streets for ever?

The Farmers’ Market

There was a fair turnout for the Farmers’ Market and the stalls seemed to be doing a brisk trade.

Queueing at Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s seems no longer to open for 15 minutes of “browsing time” before the tills open and so we had aimed to arrive at exactly 11 am when the doors open. In the event, we were 3 minutes early and thus found ourselves waiting in a queue that already stretched round the corner into Tolpuddle Street and past the bus stop.

On the hour, the queue began to move and, pausing only to take a trolley, we plunged into the mêlée within.

We found most of what we wanted but I couldn’t help noticing the empty spaces here and there on the shelves. I don’t know whether this is a merely local problem (a relative who works for Sainsbury’s in another town reports that 170 members of staff are off sick) or whether this is the beginning of shortages caused by the well publicised difficulties arising from our exit from the EU.

Service at the window

We stopped off on the way home at Mercer’s for our coffee as usual. Here we found another novelty: the door was locked and on it in large letters was written “ORDER AT WINDOW”. When my turn came, I ordered coffee, proffering my new loyalty card (see It’s not Sunday but…). In the confusion of the novelty conditions, the assistant forgot to return my card and I forgot to ask for it. I’ll mention it next time and perhaps they’ll remember finding an orphan card.

And that, I think, will be our outing for today. Given that we have been out and that its jolly c~o~l~d, we shall stay indoors for the remainder of the day. Ari obviously agrees with us!

Ari goes for a stroll
Video by Tigger

I may have mentioned (though, if so, I cannot find where) that we recently had a little visitor. After an unexplained absence, which we thought might be permanent, said visitor has made a triumphant return.

Tigger named this small person Ari, short for Ariadne, which could also be construed as ‘Arry, short for Harold, if her/his gender turns out to be male.

I’m sure you are now hoping for a photo of Ari so, without more ado, here is one we prepared earlier.

Ari (or ‘Arry)
Photo by Tigger

This is a characteristic pose adopted by Ari (as I shall call her/him), which Tigger calls her “pilates position”. She remains still for long periods and then turns up, still between wall and ceiling, but further along.

I imagine that winter is a hard time for spiders, given that there are not many insects about, and having somewhere warm to stay must be very appealing.

At full stretch (in the “pilates position”), I estimate that Ari is about 2 inches long. One informant, more knowledgeable than we, has tentatively identified her species as “common house spider” but I protest that there is nothing “common” about our Ari!

…and relax

When we returned from shopping, Ari had adopted a more relaxed pose.

As I write this, Ari has been for a little walk – all of 18 inches – but had stopped once more, this time in the relaxed, “spider-normal” position.

I will update “Spider News”, if there is anything to report. The arachnophobes among you (who won’t have read this far, anyway, should avoid posts with “spider” in the title).