During the last few evenings, a massive spider has taken to appearing out of nowhere and running at breakneck speed across the back of my sofa—if spiders do, indeed, have necks to break. I’m rather fond of spiders, so am not usually startled by them, but I don’t deal at all well with unexpected noises or movements, so the spider’s sudden appearance has made me jump out of my skin at least three times. Tricky blighters, spiders.
It’s that time of year when the moon begins to make fleeting appearances in one of the circular pitching-eye windows above our living room. The windows hark back to when our living room was a barn, and hay would be pitched through them.

It always delights me to see the moon shining through this window. It all feels very Stonehengey and Indian Jones-ey, seeing a celestial body align like that.