Green Man Festival and a spider

PICTURE HEAVY POST

Saturday was the Pilton Green Man Festival.
Emilia was invited to take part along with some other children from her school. It was a great day and it didn't rain until late afternoon!She made some wings out of willow and decorated them herself

The Green Man himself - so many children were scared of him! He wears stilts and is about 12 feet tall!
A view of Pilton Street from the top, it is very popular day :) We heard some great music, not least from The Liquidators . One Dh's work colleagues is the bass player.

Emilia and her friends ready for the parade through the centre of Barnstaple to Pilton.
Enjoying the parade!

Another of the Green Man Characters.
And finally! Maddie on the merry go round. Next year we are all going to get involved as we had such a wonderful day :)

We had a busy day yesterday. We tidied out the glasses and sweets cupboards in the kitchen. Look what DH found in the sweets cupboard - needless to say almost everything went in the bin

I've never seen a spider like this before so took a photo before dh had a chance to set him free. It is a Woodlouse spider (great because woodlice give me the willies more than spiders!) and causes a nettle like rash if it bites you. This is what the Natural History Museum in London says about them.

Body size
Female to 15 mm; male to 10 mm.

Appearance
Distinctive, with prominent jaws, an absence of hairs, and a reddish carapace and legs, contrasting with a cream or grey-coloured abdomen.

Habitat, range and season
In and around buildings and under debris. Emerges from hiding places on nocturnal hunting excursions; woodlice are its main prey. Originally a native of southern Europe; now introduced to Japan, N & S America, S Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Adults throughout the year.

Web
None.

First recorded in the UK
1861.

Bite reports
'Held on to top of finger, had to be knocked off; the bite was like that of a bee sting, leaving a white spot on finger.'
'Similar to a nettle sting. The pain subsided after an hour, leaving a red mark and two tiny puncture marks which persisted for a couple of days.'
'Suffered papular urticaria.'

At least it doesn't make webs for me to tidy up! I suspect it was drawn upstairs due to the water in the cellar below.

DH also removed the huge Georgian fireplace from our front room ready for auction next week. It upsets me to remove an original feature from this house, but it was so big and so black It just depressed me to look at it. We still have the original fireplaces upstairs and we'll eventually put another, smaller cast iron georgian fireplace back in.

It's a slate fire surround, with a handpainted marble effect. The fireplace itself is damaged and is cast iron with original tiles. Don't make me feel bad about removing this piece of history from our home, it just wasn't right for us and I hope that by sending it to auction we will be able to decorate the front room and that whoever buys it appreciates it more than we did.