Spider Season

One of the great things about the part of England we live in is that there are no mosquitos, very few bugs in general, compared to at home.  Houses don't even have screens on the windows here.  But the downside on the "bug" front is that there are a lot of Spiders in England.....maybe there's a connection there?  There are quite a variety of spiders, but a particularly large one exists here that I've never seen at home.  It's about 2 inches in diameter, including it's leg span.  "Oh, that's no bigger than our Daddy Long Legs," you say.  But these spiders have thicker legs, which makes a difference to me for some reason.  They are much more visible, and yes, they make me jump. 

So Fall is Spider season here in England....when the spiders like to come into your house, just to make your life a little more exciting.  The preventative that is used here is called the "conker", which is a horse chestnut.  They say that if you put a couple of these in the corners of each room, it helps to keep the spiders away.  We'll see....I have a friend that has a Conker tree near her house and she invited me over to pick a big bowlful. 

OK, so I must admit, I've had a few spider nightmares.  One night, I dreamed that there was a huge spider descending onto me from the ceiling over my bed. But, I do believe that the light fixture in my room had something to do with that...what do you think? Does it resemble anything scary?