Saturday, October 3, 2009

Gulf Shrimp and Spiders




My husband got an email from the "shrimp man" while he was in Atlanta for a continuing education conference (which does not sound like it's nearly as much fun as our writer conferences, poor guy)". The shrimp man was driving up to Oxford from the coast with fresh shrimp Saturday morning, and he'd start selling at 7:00 a.m. at the farmer's market. Hubby was getting home Saturday afternoon and thought fresh shrimp sounded pretty good. So, I sent my daughter bright and early with a pocket full of cash to the farmer's market, just a couple of blocks down our street.

Dinner tonight on our front porch:
Shrimp drowning in butter, garlic, worcestershire, cracked pepper and lemons . . .with a baguette to dunk into the mixture, of course.

And then, after dinner I looked over to my right and look what I saw:


Yes, Lisa and Laura, it is a gigantic wolf spider. Right there. Watching me eat dinner. I must admit that if I'd run into this creature in my bedroom or den, I'd run screaming. But, seeing her sitting in the middle of her gorgeously spun web, made me say ahhh. And, yes, I took that picture of her about 10 minutes ago.

Of course, I think she's paying us a visit because of this spider



which is hanging from a nearby tree in our front yard. My girls and I have spent the last couple of days blinging up our house for Halloween, and I think our friend the wolf spider found a place where she felt welcome.

sf


12 comments:

storyqueen said...

OMG. Wishing I could jump through the computer to your kitchen (or your front porch!) I'd even tackle the spider for a taste of that shrimp.

Yum.

Shelley

Katie Anderson said...

Do y'all call that BBQ Shrimp? 'Cuz we do and you just determined what we're having for dinner this week!

Yumm!!!! (except mine will be from the grocery and not the Shrimp Man)

We have it for Christmas lunch now, too. Man, I love that dish.

ALSO, Meg and I think that spider is NOT a Wolf Spider. What makes you think it is? We have Wolfs around our house and they are black and brown - not white and scary. I may have to google that sucker. Unless, of course, John says so 'cuz he probably knows...

Katie Anderson said...

UPDATE: We have googled and that is NOT a Wolf. But what it is? Your guess is as good as mine.

YIKES! What is it???

Hardygirl said...

Anne id'd the spider. She (I've decided it's a girl) is black and brown and gigantic. She just looks white in the picture because of the flash which I had to use so her web would show up. So, I think she's a wolf.

Yes! BBQ Shrimp. Sooo good, but you need to buy from the shrimp man. He sometimes takes things to the market on North Lamar--call and ask what day he'll be there.

Yes Storyqueen--it was yummy.

sf

sf

Tere Kirkland said...

Mmm, BBQ shrimp! Had some with grit cakes last week. We had a St Andrew's spider on our back porch last month. Huge and scary looking, but not at all aggressive.

I thought wolf spiders were ground dwellers, no web. Could be a female hobo? No venom, but you sure don't want that sucker to bite you. I've had those in the house, too. Don't you love living in the South? ;)

Hardygirl said...

Hmm. Sounds like I need to study my new friend in the daylight and get a positive i.d.

sf

Little Ms J said...

I just ate spaghetti and am suddenly hungry again. Sounds dee-lish. Seriously, where are you with the Debutante Camp we discussed? I want to come visit!

Corey Schwartz said...

YUM, that looks good!

lisa and laura said...

Oh my gosh, that shrimp looks delish! The spider? Not so much...

Laura is going to freak when she sees the pic. I bet she'll be able to tell you if it's wolf or not. She's pretty much obsessed.

lisa and laura said...

Okay, this is Laura and I'm freaking out. When I saw the title, I have to admit I was worried you were eating shrimp AND spiders--thank goodness that wasn't the case. Whew. But just seeing that spider near my house would have me convinced I'd eat one in the middle of the night. Yeah, I'm a headcase.

Jeannie Campbell, LMFT said...

where are you girls?!

I wanted to let you know about my blog address change. *sigh* If you're following me, my posts now won't show up in your feed, dashboard, sidebar, whatever. So please forgive me, but you'll have to change the address for my main writing blog, Where Romance Meets Therapy, to http://jeanniecampbell.blogspot.com. To do this, you have to "unfollow" me and follow me again. Sorry for the confusion!

Jeannie
The Character Therapist

Kelly H-Y said...

Oh my goodness ... that spider would have sent me running!

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