Spiders and Wasps and Birds

Hello again everyone! I hope you liked the video's we added. We put one more up there today, and we'll probably add a video or two of a tour of our place here once we get a chance. We also put up some more pictures in the 'Sydney Oct/Nov' folder too, so take a peek if you like. This picture is of me eating a Mango that Erynn has perfected in cutting. It has to be our new favorite fruit!!

If you are squeamish you may want to stop reading now...

Last week I had a little encounter with some Australia sized bugs. I walked out into the backyard and saw the scariest and coolest thing ever!! I almost stepped on this HUGE wasp!! The body of it was bigger than my thumb! not only that but it was attacking an even bigger Spider!!! The spider was the size of my hand!! I'll admit it, I ran back inside screaming like a little girl. Luckily no one was home to witness that. But I am sure everyone else I know would have done the same! After a few seconds I regained my manliness and grabbed the camera and snapped a few pictures, they may not be too clear cause I wasn't getting any farther than three inches from the doorway in case it turned on me, and I was still a bit shakey from before... So I watched this giant wasp kill this man hunting spider and drag it away. I guess they feed the spiders to their young! We talked to Steve and Toni about it and I guess the spiders are very common, and about the size of a hand, but don't actually hunt men, and apparently not venomous. They just climb on walls and jump really far. It didn't make me or Erynn feel any better about anything. Neither of them had seen a wasp that big before. I am almost glad that wasp killed the spider... (instead of me of course) cause I think the spider was scarier than the wasp.

So ya, that's about it for now. This weekend we are going to go to this medieval fayre where they have guys on horses doing real jousting and sword fighting with the armor and everything. We just hope the weather cooperates... they are calling for rain. We'll let you know how that goes next time. For now, take care and let us know how you are doing, we miss everyone!!

Nate and Erynn.

Aussie fact of the day: Pedestrians do not have the right of way; cars do. No one will not slow down for you. Its customary to speed up and honk at anyone in your way.

- From Gov Oz website - "walking is 2.5 times more dangerous than travelling in a car"

"Pedestrian accidents account for between 15 and 20% of all road deaths in Australia"