Beads, Spiders and the Meaning of Life

Just before Christmas I spotted the coolest invention online, its a spider-friendly spider catcher :) Our shed at the allotment appears to have become the local hang out for the spiders of Hertfordshire. As a result getting anything in or out of the shed has become a bit of a delicate operation involving long poles and some, not so child friendly language. In fairness to the 8 legged ones they are appropriately dressed for the allotment and can be found wearing boots and heavy coats (well thats what it looks like to me!) so they maybe planning on helping out with the work. Nevertheless, I'm not their biggest fan but don't want to kill them. This little invention was therefore met with delight. It also bought back some memories of growing up. My dad is of a similar mindset and has come up with numerous, ingenious ways of catching our little and not so little visitors. I therefore thought I had to get one for him too, so one has winged its way to him too for his birthday (along with chocolate). Here's a little glimpse at the device.

Anyway, thats spiders.....
Also this week I've kind of fallen of the wagon and been buying beads again. In my defence though I haven't bought any for ages so I'd been strict until now with my bead diet. My favourites so far are a toss up between some glass beads I bought from a vintage store and some pretty ones I have got from Beads Unlimited. As well as those I've bought a load of different coloured wooden beads. I'm looking forward to having a proper play with them tomorrow and hopefully making some more jewellery for my shop.
I've also been reading loads recently. After finishing A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian I have now started and almost finished Sophies World by Jostein Gaarder. My mum bought it for me a few years back and I started it but never finished it. Its an amazing read and I've been totally engrossed for the last few days. Its written as a kind of mystery centring round a 14 year old girl in Norway and her meetings with a mysterious philosopher called Albert Knox. In amongst the story is Sophie's journey through the history of philosophy right from Greek times to almost present day. I love philosophy and studied it at A-level and uni but I have never come across anything that has been able to explain it in such an accessible way. Its brilliant. I can't wait to find out how it ends :)