The White Spider

No, really, there is such a creature. Although if you’d asked me before Sunday I would have doubted it. No more. Picking dessert gooseberries in the weekend early morning, to beat the heat, there it was, peeping out at me from under a bright green gooseberry leaf. I had to stop and stare. It was big – about a centimetre in body length, with a plump rounded abdomen, and, when it stretched its legs out, which it seemed to like doing, was easily 2cm from tip to tip. And white, all over, with a few green marks on its rear. “Come and see!” I said to Emma, and later Tim, having made a mental note of where to find it, gooseberry foliage looking very similar from one leaf to the next. None of us knew what it  was.

Consultation and research was undertaken – some online, and some with a friend. No, it was not some foreign invader, escaped from a bunch of grapes out of latin America, but was very much a native. What I had found was a female “Goldenrod Crab Spider”. Come to think of it, when it stuck its legs out, it did look remarkably crab-like. Apparently these don’t bother to spin a web. They can change colour, from white to yellow, and hide in flower heads. When a suitably succulent pollinating insect lands, the spider jumps out and devours them. But a fruiting gooseberry bush has no flowers. Interestingly, this year, my bushes have also not suffered from pernicious sawfly, whose caterpillars devour gooseberry leaves as the proverbial locust. I wondered if I was looking at a highly effective natural pest control machine, albeit a rather brutal one. Returning to the spot on the bush this morning, I find that the spider is still there, in the same place. So, she is not here to feed, but has made a nest. A gooseberry leaf has been rolled into a rugby ball shape, presumably eggs have been laid inside, and the leaf “sewn up”. The white spider is standing guard, in the darkness of the underside, her white colour easily diffused by the dappled green shade, and her outstretched legs looking remarkably akin to a gooseberry thorn.

There is no end to the wonders that God has made; the good earth rewards those who take the time to pay attention, even in the smallest of ways.

On guard !

Worship Services for Sunday 6th July

9.30am Family Service at St John’s Stoke Row with Revd Romey Poston

11am Morning Prayer at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Revd James Leach

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Thank you, and an invitation.

Thank you to those of you who sent good wishes and prayers ahead of and during my visit to the Isle of Man for my dear friend’s funeral. It was one of those “hard” funerals, being for an untimely death, but I would not have been anywhere else.

Happily, some partings are sweeter. Revd Romey Poston writes “It was such a privilege and a joy to celebrate communion with you all at the Team Service on Sunday. I’d like to say a huge thank you  for your astonishing kindness and generosity in the leaving gift presented to me during the service – truly humbling – especially as my sense is that all the thanks are really due the other way round.  I have been truly blessed to be your curate.”

The season of “endings” presents us with many other opportunities to celebrate and give thanks. Checkendon School warmly invites you to any or all of the (free!) end of year celebrations: There is the pupils’ music concert this Friday, 2nd July at 1.30pm, in the school hall, with performances from pupils, classes, music groups and the school choir.

Next week features the drama production  “The Emerald Crown” on Tuesday 8th July at 1.30pm, also in the school hall, and at the end of term the end of year Church Service is on Wed 16th July at 2.30pm.

Do make the most of these opportunities to show an interest and support the work of pupils and teachers at our local Church of England School. You will be most welcome. The weather promises to be cooler by then! In the meantime, stay hydrated, covered up, and out of the sun in the hottest part of the day.

The Lord bless you, and be with you all.

Your Rector, Revd Kevin.