Storytelling Starters ~ Spiders etc.
Odd how things happen, isn’t it? On Thursday evening, we went to a concert at the Union Chapel in Islington. I hadn’t been there for a million years – and it’s a beautiful place with a fascinating history. Way back then, my visit was to hear the wonderful Welsh singer and harpist, Siân James (with whom I once did a storytelling performance). Now it was to hear the equally wonderful Portuguese fado singer, Claudia Aurora.
One of Claudia’s songs on Thursday was all about insects. She introduced it with a heartfelt (and very funny) account of how she cannot bear SPIDERS and how she’d found a HUGE spider on one of her curtains and was TERRIFIED until her neighbour came to the rescue.
So there I sat as she was speaking, my mind ranging over the subject of spiders – all the cobwebs currently on my windows, for it’s definitely been the spider season, and how, when someone tells me how they hate spiders, I often briefly recount that North American Indian story which is such a brilliant reminder of our human foibles.
The North American Indian Story:
The great hero – big and muscly and fearless and quick – goes out on missions. Always when he returns, people ask him where he has been. So he tells them. And I leave it to you to imagine the tales. How he’s gone into big, dark caves and found himself in the Land of the Dead, besieged by living skeletons. How he’s fought off and killed the most hideous monster, half hyena, half man. And so on …
Now the hero was back from another adventure. Everyone was sitting round the open-air fire at the centre of the village. ‘And what happened? the people were asking. So he began his story. But hardly had he got going when he felt something move on his arm. At first, it felt like nothing more than the breeze. But then he felt it moving again. And when he looked down, he saw …. A SPIDER! How he jumped, how he screamed. ‘Help! Get it off me! Help ….etc!’
My story:
After her spiderly introduction, Claudia Aurora got on with her song about insects. Barely had she started when I was suddenly conscious of something on the left side of my neck. I raised my hand to the place and, as I flicked away whatever was there, I felt a sharp little sting. Whatever it was – and it can’t have been a SPIDER, can it? – left its sting on my neck AND on my finger. Minutes later, the sting on my neck came up in a sore, itchy, red lump which, actually, I can still feel it as I write.
INSECTS! Odd, isn’t it, how things happen?
PS. My top photo today is of a favourite item in our house – a spider ornament from South Africa. And I hope you like the spider web.
PPS. I recounted the North American Indian story above in a fuller version in my posting on 12 January, 2013. Another story in that same posting is of Grandmother Spider bringing light to the world. You can easily check back to previous blogs by entering the subject or date in Search.
Tags: Claudia Aurora, insects, Siân James, spider, sting, Union Chapel
October 9th, 2016 at 9:46 am
Hi Mary – I have many spiders in my house and they are fascinating and welcome as long as they don’t dangle from a long web over me when I’m in bed ! Their webs in the garden at this time of year are beautiful sparkling in the low Autumn light, and the Grandmother spider stories are a favourite. What aren’t welcome in my house are slugs which when it’s raining seem to find a way to come into the kitchen. The other evening i was reading – a basket of logs and a warm stove, curled up on the sofa with a good book and a cup of tea. Scrunch scrunch scrunch —- what was that sound — scrunch scrunch — coming from the fireplace, regular as a clock ticking — scrunch scrunch — and then my eyes focused on the culprit – an enormous spotty leopard slug noisily eating a log – yes really — scrunch scrunch – chewing on a log . Slug and log were returned to the log shed from whence they had come and a slug free log selected. One day I expect to open the log shed door and lots of spotty slugs will pause and look at me before returning to devouring my log supply — scrunch scrunch scrunch.
Well done not squawking when an insect landed on you during the concert. Love Jean xxx
October 10th, 2016 at 8:13 pm
Hi Jean. At least slugs don’t bite! We get lots in Pembs, black ones and they do look very sluggy. Presumably they slink back into the woodwork when morning comes. But back to the neck bite, the lump the wicked creature caused is still vestigially there and even yesterday was itching like mad. Very good to hear from you. Thanks for writing. All the best, Mary