City living meant a certain level of disconnect from nature, except for my adorable pigeon friend Stumpy of course who regularly visited my window ledge. There were no insects in the city flat, something I was used to from countryside living. I’d get excited to see a tiny, spindly spider here and there. Other than that, all was quiet.

Things are different now. I encounter at least three active spiders a day, of varying sizes, seeking out homes in the lounge ready for fly catching season. I say good morning to the odd woodlouse nestling in the dish cloth 😳 and Simon helped rehouse a whole family of them from under a door frame on the very first day. There are tiny shiny beetles appearing by magic on the floors of the house. I never see them moving and I’m not sure what they’re trying to achieve as they play dead, but their petroleum colours are a delight to behold as they’re gently swept up and deposited outside again. There’s a range of flying insects and moths to rescue too. I’m sure I’ll experience even more exciting creepy crawlies as time goes on.

Before moving in, before even knowing this would be the place to make a new home, I walked around the area and money spiders started landing on me. Tiny sweet spiders - the only spiders allowed to land on me without me freaking out and running around with frantically splaying limbs. I’d forgotten they even existed until that moment and was so happy to see them again taking it as a good luck sign I was on the right path to a beautifully abundant future.