A moth's nightmare

The paths get muddier day by day and today I was bitterly regretting wearing my poor muddied walking boots instead of wellies. Tomorrow it will be wellies for sure.

Thankfully there was no fog which has plagued so many areas in England but it was still incredibly wet and misty and again, no sign of lovely hills to lift the spirits. I snapped away at a couple of potential blips as I skidded my way round the paths - which haven't been helped by also being trodden by several horses on a daily basis! I finally hovered for a while beside a section of fencing from which some raindrops were invitingly beckoning. I was really struggling to get any of the raindrops in focus when I suddenly saw emerging into my viewfinder from the right, a tiny spider. Then and only then did I notice an even smaller moth a bit higher up, suspended as if in thin air. My camera did eventually manage to semi focus on the spider and moth and it was then I spotted the beginnings of a web. I made several attempts at capturing the scene as the spider crept purposefully towards its prey but I wasn't sure if I had been successful. Meanwhile the camera and I were getting very wet and in short - rain stopped play.

Once home I decided that although the result was nowhere near in focus it was good enough to blip as I was unlikely to have another chance of a similar encounter for a while. I felt this was the best of three potential shots as it shows up the stripes on the spider's abdomen and I think, gruesomely, the moth's terrified eyes.

One good thing about the rain today was that it made be smile to think that it could no longer insinuate itself into my shed! The next task will be to put a hair dryer or some other heater in to attempt to dry out the wood inside as it is very, very wet on one wall.