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).