My Wildlife - Part I

Saturday dawned bright and sunny. No better day for a 10K run and a camping trip. Before my feet hit the floor, the lad was dinging at me to hurry up. He had to go! But before any going happened, I had to make a pot of coffee. I go nowhere in the morning without being properly fueled.

So, while standing at the kitchen counter, waiting for the coffee to brew and swapping ripostes with a slightly nagging teenager, something plopped onto the counter next to my hand. For all the world, it looked like a tiny white worm all curled up in a ball. It was a tiny white worm. And then I looked up at the ceiling and shrieked.

There were hundreds of them. It was like the great gold rush. They were racing for the other side of the room. A whole herd of them on my kitchen ceiling. And the teenager was still nudging. “We have to go! Now!”

Oh, and there was one wolf spider on the ceiling making a snack out of one of the hapless worms. “You’ve got your work cut out for you there, buddy,” I muttered.

I was away from the house about a half an hour. When I returned there were more worms. And three large wolf spiders feasting away. The spider grapevine had been activated.

I dragged out my newish bag less vacuum cleaner and began sucking worms off the ceiling. I left the spiders to their work. Halfway across I started counting each worm I sucked up. By the time I reached the other side of the room, the count was around 130. Double that figure for both sides of the room. And I turned around and saw another wave coming.

Where were they coming from? What were they? Whyyyy?

More later....