Here in my home town of Lewes, UK,  now thanks to secret voters in the recent General Election, a Conservative constituency, we are learning to take the rough with the smooth. It’s spring, which is nice, but it’s been unseasonably cold, well, cool in that North West wind that has blown up over the last few days but that has meant that the blossom has hung around longer than usual and that’s good too. Yes, we are taking the rough with the smooth here now that we have found out that our new member of Parliament is a Conservative and that our former and rather splendid MP, the energetic Liberal-Democrat Norman Baker has been unceremoniously cast aside after 18 years as Lewes’s representative in Parliament.

Now, I like spiders. I’ve often said that in these blogs and, here in my small town garden in the now Conservative constituency of Lewes, I am lucky to have a healthy community of little creatures all, as far as I can tell, feeling at home here. The spiders are much in evidence and that is good.

In these days when we are told that bees, rather like Social-Democrat MPs, are becoming worryingly scarce, I am fortunate to have a lively community of bees buzzing around in my garden too.

I like bees, especially bumble bees and do everything in my power to help them to thrive here by planting flowers and shrubs that are bee-friendly. I hope I’m making a difference because my environment would be a whole lot less pleasant if bees disappeared altogether.

I do have, of course, spiders and, as I said, I like spiders too.

In the summer months, I’m lucky enough to have beautiful creatures like damsel flies.

Sadly, sometimes, my spiders catch my damsel flies but, well, I have learnt to take the rough with the smooth.

I try to stay calm when I see another example of Nature being red in tooth and claw but it doesn’t stop me wishing for a greener Britain one day. Through all of this, I’ve carried on liking spiders.

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Early morning in the garden at this time of year, here in Lewes, UK and the spiders have already added their artwork to the scenery. Their dewy webs bring spectacular ornaments to my camellia, irises, roses and lavender bushes.

Their intricate work brings new interest to my little courtyard garden where I practice my martial arts.

Mind and body focusing comes with Kungfu. No matter how much I try though, I suspect I will never get as fluent in my moves as my amazing garden spiders.

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I just had to go and grab my camera after my taichi practice in the garden here in Lewes, England, this morning.  One of the many good things about challenging the stay-in-bed in me, is the early morning dew on the spiders’ webs accompanied by the soft sweet smell of moistened rose leaves. Here are some photos just to show you what I mean. Sorry I can’t help with the aroma so just imagine, as John Lennon would advise.

My fences were planned for roses and clemmatis and, this year they have been great but the mix of the late last bloomings from some of my favourite roses and the sculptural interest from the clammatis seedheads, there is another picturesque element in early autumn that I had not predicted.

Those intricate webs, shining in the sunlight, are as decorative as any flower.

An artist has beaten me to it and made my garden, at this time of year, even more beautiful than i could have imagined.

It is all, of course, thanks to my friends the spiders who are legion out there at the moment – they are in their element as this time of year.

Now I must get on with the rest of my day – just a little bit inspired. Thank you Horace and your eight-legged friends.

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