The Hollosphere

Well, it happened. My baby got married. Here she is with her new husband, Luke.

I have never seen a tarantula outside a zoo. Until today, that is! Conal said he’d never seen one at Murray Creek. When this one strolled across the driveway today, I was initially horrified. Then I saw how slowly and deliberately it moved, how its body looked fuzzy and kind of soft rather than icky, and I got more fascinated than scared. Having recovered from my initial wiggins, I followed it for awhile. I put my foot near it and took a photo. It sort of reared up in a weary “Oh for pity’s sake, now what?” kind of way, but didn’t seem too upset. As soon as I backed off, it continued ambling along, moving purposefully toward the northeast. It reached the edge of the driveway, climbed laboriously over the curb, then went scrambling and clawing its way up the steep hillside. A couple of times it chose routes that proved too precipitous, and would tumble back down and have to find another way around. It’s clumsiness lessened my fear still further.

Then a yellow jacket buzzed suddenly near it and it JUMPED, like, totally leaped sideways several inches in a split second. Since it obviously knew some wicked karate moves, after that I regained some respect and a bit more distance. It didn’t seem agressive at all, though, just careful in a defensive way. I mean, a yellow jacket sting would probably suck if you were that small, wouldn’t it? I’d jump out of range, too.

Back in the house, I could still see the spider from the window above my desk, making its way further and further up the hill in a more or less straight northeasterly line. Where in the world was it off too? A convention? A dental appointment? Those were some mighty big mandibles. I hope s/he has good insurance. I read that spiders eat all kinds of pesky bugs. Whatever its destination, I’m over my heebie jeebies and I wish this particular spider well.

You guys have heard me say over and over that our driveway is really long and steep, but I have never been able to say exactly how long it is.

Till now. Our contractor friend Bill brought over his neato wheeled measuring thingy. We’re considering paving the drive to help stabilize it and make it easier to drive up and down. To help him estimate what paving would cost, Bill needed a measurement. He drove down the driveway hanging out the door of his truck, holding the measuring wheel to the ground. The official length: 512 feet.

512 feet!!

512 feet is 89.04 times my own height (but only 79.79 times Conal’s).

512 feet is 1.42 football fields (outside dimension).

512 feet is the height of the Williamsburg Bank Building, the tallest building in Brooklyn and one of the two tallest on Long Island.

Sh’yeah. And you guys thought I was just whining about how long the thing was. I will have no more rolling of eyes when I ramble on a bit about the looooong driveway, ya hear?

Work on installing the decking boards is underway today. Our contractor friend Bill brought three guys with him and they weren’t fooling around! They got about half the boards on the back section tacked down before quitting at 2:30 pm. They started at around 7 am.

It’s going to be a ginormous deck, especially once it has been extended to the east end so that it goes all the way around the house. We plan to widen the front porch as well, changing the porch roof to allow for better views from the front of the house.

Before you start scratching your head wondering what would posses us to build such a crazy-huge deck, rest assured that it is being built with Trex, so it will last forever, and also note that it will basically function as our yard. The land is so steep around the house that the only places we had to hang out comfortably outside were the front porch and the driveway.

Picture the deck strewn with comfortable furniture, maybe a shade pavilion of some kind, and dotted with barrels and pots of herbs and flowers. I’ve also gotta learn about plants to cover the dirt/rock wall so the area will be cooler and prettier. You would not believe the heat that reflects off that hillside at the house. Phew!

Visit my Facebook profile for a full spread of photos.

I made quiche. Oh yeah, baby. Sage sausage, spinach, onion, mushrooms, and cheeses. I line the bottom of the pie plate with cheese to make a kind of crust. I had extra egg mixture, so I tossed some more cheese and some red bell pepper into a smaller plate for a plain quiche. Mmmmmm! Don’t you wish you were here to eat some?!

In other news, the deer herd was frolicking about on the hill behind our house, chasing each other around and generally making a ruckus. Cute little buggers. There was even a young buck with a couple of points. He better watch out–I think deer season is here! One small one was especially charming, doing the four-legged bouncy-hop thing all over the place. It was pretty much a Disney movie up there.

Hi! I’m Holly. Welcome to my blog. I have no idea what I’m doing here, but I’m sure I’ll catch on eventually. Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by. Here’s a picture of my new friend.

I think I should have a contest to name him. Any ideas?