Hidden Gems

I was thinking about jobs the other day. At present I am passing time as a part-time receptionist at one of the village doctors but am not convinced that it is 'really me'; so in an attempt to figure out what I might want to do with this phase of my life I started to think about my old jobs and what I'd most enjoyed. 

To my surprise, the one thing that stood out, enjoyment wise, was working as a Countryside Officer for Cambridgeshire County Council. It was a great job, I got to drive around the county, dispensing grants and words of wisdom about habitat management, conservation and meeting lots of really nice people, their dogs and often sampling delicious cake... more of that later.
 

The thing that really stood out for me though was one tiny little linear site that I was responsible for.  It was a gorgeous little gem of mesotrophic grassland and scalloped woodland edge that had formed part of an old railway line and was full of little surprises, such as perforated St. John's Wort. 

Part of my job was to keep an eye on the site which I used as an excuse to pop into the site whenever my schedule and weather permitted to eat my packed lunch.

This was because nestled in this gem was an even more delightful treasure.

Araneus quadratus.

 

 

This amazingly beautiful spider is identified by the four white spots on its body; it comes in an amazing variety of colours from leaf green to brick red with black and white zebra striped legs.

They spin webs and then lurk under tall grasses, soft rushes or umbillifers awaiting their lunch.

 

They confirmed a life long love of spiders!

 

As to the cake, many of the farms and community groups I and my colleagues visited often used to ply us with coffee and delicious homemade cakes - so much so that it became an on going joke that we should include cake quality as part of  project appraisals.  Thank goodness my journey to work was a 45 minute walk each way - otherwise I'd have been bursting out of my trousers within a few weeks.