Saturday 2 October 2010

What's a girl supposed to do?


I must say I think we are the lucky generation of women.Born in the age of the contraceptive pill, equal rights (in our country at least), equal pay (well - almost). I must also say that in my teaching career I never felt at a disadvantage being a woman and never felt I was judged on anything other than my performance. I have always felt equal.
That does not mean to say that I could do a man's job necessarily. The farmer tills the soil, looks after the beast, digs the garden - does all the major physical sort of jobs. I cook and wash the laundry - equal shares of the jobs we both do best. Nothing wrong with that, is there?
But today I had to acknowledge that women## are the weaker sex. There are two things I can't abide. One of them is moths - the very word makes me shudder. (I do know a man who has a phobia about frogs and another man who does not like mice (yes F, I mean you)). The other thing I am not too keen on is what I will broadly call 'creepy-crawlies'.
One morning last week a large (and i mean large) spider chose to sit in the washbasin in the bathroom. I spotted it as I stepped out of the shower. I grabbed the towel and ran down to phone the farmer who was luckily only a stone's throw away from the house. In no time at all it was in a tumbler and out into the garden (if you wish to live and thrive, let all spiders run alive).
But today at lunch time when I took two peaches out of the fruit bowl to put on a plate for dessert at lunch time do you see what was lurking in the stem end of one peach?
Dear readers courage failed me. It appeared to be asleep but as I carefully put the peach down on the draining board in the kitchen it woke up and extended its feelers for a sniff around. I am ashamed to say I fled. Only when the farmer came did I dare to come back and photograph it to show you.

Alright - I admit it. I am lily-livered, scared of wee beasties and hereby acknowledge that all you men out there are my knights in shining armour ready to defend me against the tiniest beetle. If anyone knows what it is, do let me know. I just hope it isn't some tropical chappie that has travelled all the way across Europe in a box of peaches, because now it sits in our privet hedge on a pretty cool night, which will be a bit of a shock. But not half the shock I got when I saw it first.

##read some women!

20 comments:

Cloudia said...

We are phobic about strange beaties coming into the isles - but already have plenty!



Aloha from Honolulu

Comfort Spiral

The Solitary Walker said...

Jesus, Pat, that photo has absolutely terrified me, and completely put me off my supper. I though I'd logged on to the wrong site for a moment!

steven said...

cripes weaver i wasn't sure what that picture was at first and i thought that this post would be something horrifying and medical!!! steven

Totalfeckineejit said...

I was viciously attacked by a butterfly as a child and have held an abject terror of them ever since.

Elizabeth said...

Dear Weaver,
it is a very small bug
I am NOT terrified.
However, when I saw a dead scorpion I freaked out.

I agree about things being pretty good ( not perfect --but not too bad) for women in Britain and the US.
Much better than in most parts of the world.
A book you might enjoy: Virginia Nicholson's"Singled Out". She writes with such compassion and with excellent detail about the lot of single women in Britain post WW1.

Gerry Snape said...

Oh no Scorpions....don't mention them. I sat in a french toilet in Provence in the middle of the night in the dark...and there an inch in front of my face...a dreaded scorpion! I had brought it in unknowingly in an empty snail shell in my usual daft garnerings of "lovely" objects. SCREAM!!!!!

Heather said...

It looks like a type of shield bug, which I believe are harmless. I don't like spiders and met a very large one in an empty flowerpot today. I beat a hasty retreat. I have always thought of men and women as equals - we are just different from them.

Von said...

Where I live, us girls were brought up to be and feel equal and also to do everyhing boys do.That includes dealing with snakes, spiders and anything that crawls,creeps,flies of moves.Not much choice if you live outback. To think many of these women were originally English, Scottish or Welsh!

Titus said...

Weaver, I'm ashamed of you! It's nearly a namesake of yours! Just a little weevil.
The photograph, combined with the intial lines of the post, had me more worried. I thought it was sitting on a contraceptive cap.
I shall just pop off and ascertain what type of weevil. We get identical ones, not too many and only ever one at a time. Virtually indestructible, and very ticklish on the hand. Though I expect you don't want to know that.

Titus said...

Reckon it's just a vine weevil like ours -
"Otiorhynchus sulcatus, commonly known as the black vine weevil"

Can't do you no harm. Watch the plants though.

Pondside said...

Spiders - they bite me, even if they don't bite another soul in the room. I am therefor, very frightened of them and stay far away! I work with some of the (allegedly) scariest people in the country, but am more put off by a spider, so I do understand, completely.

mansuetude said...

Google what a brown recluse might do.

Am more creeped out by peach fuzz on my tongue. Long live the nectarine

Gwil W said...

Thanks for sharing your holiday snaps. The beautiful reflections have got me thinking...

George said...

No help from my corner of the world, Pat. I hate the beasties as well. May I suggest some well-chosen profanity and a well-aimed whack at fellows like the one sitting on top of what would have otherwise been a succulent peach.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Seems to me that as that creepy crawly was a vine weevil I should have given it the boot rather than letting it live to fight another day. Ah well - I saved its bacon - and I am certainly not going out there to look for it.

Jenn Jilks said...

I don't think it is a gender issue, Weaver! I don't mind bugs at all. My son does...
We're up to our arses in bugs here. You best not visit! :-)
Still mosquitoes in the house, with nighttime temps of 0 C. or so...

Mac n' Janet said...

Don't mind bugs, prefer not to deal with spiders but not particularly afraid of them, it's snails that make me fall off the rails, I'm terrified of them.
Are men and women equal, probably not, but hopefully we complement each other. Lord knows there are many things my husband can do that I neither can or want to do.

angryparsnip said...

I can't stand Scorpions or Rattlesnakes... but can deal with them... very carefully !
Spiders freak me out but unlike you I kill them as so many are poisonous and if they are in my home they are fair game. Outside they are on their own.

cheers, parsnip

Unknown said...

It's an odd one isn't and many of the "irrational fears" and "odd dislikes" in friends that I know have usually come from a major incident durng childhood that has just stayed with them. I'm lucky whilst I'm not a lover of creepy crwalies I don't mind them. I generally try to capture and release them into the bigger world beyond my door. However I do thoroughly dslike silverfish and cockroaches!

ChrisJ said...

I'm with you on the creepie crawlies. But you should have seen the performance of my two hulking 40 year old sons and their father when a roach-like creature appeared on the ceiling when we were in Hawaii. In their defense I have to say that the American Roach is a LOT bigger than the British.