Richard Jones

I went up to Sainsbury's at Dogkennel Hill yesterday, Tuesday 31 March, about 15:00. The shelves were well stocked and the atmosphere inside was calm and peaceful, more so than usual even. It felt a bit odd queueing right round the car park to beyond the nursery, but I got in after about 30 minutes. When I came out at 15:50 the queue was half as long. Most customers were carefully keeping their distance, but occasionally you'd turn a corner and someone would walk right past ? not deliberately perhaps, just forgetfully. I got almost everything I wanted. A few gaps on the shelves including: kitchen towel, pasta, flour, yeast and hot chocolate. No fresh ginger ? that's about the most First World problem you could think of.

Micky has just finished plastering our top bedroom. Despite having to go through the whole house to get all the rubble out and all the new material up everything went smooth and CLEANLY. He did an excellent job, above and beyond the original job he was presented with when he first came round to have a look. I thoroughly recommend him.

Local author to launch new off-beat book ? Call of Nature: The Secret Life of Dung. Bookseller Crow on the Hill, 50 Westow Street, London SE19 3AF Thursday 2 February 2017, 19:30?21:00. All you ever needed to know about crottels, spraints, road apples and the weird and wonderful critters that recycle it. http://booksellercrow.co.uk

Funnel web is probably correct, made by Amaurobius similis or (larger and darker) A. ferox. Harmless. Not to be confused with dangerous Sydney funnel web, which only occurs a hemisphere away. Similar tube-retreat-and-tripwire web is made by Segestria florentina, a large, ferocious and painfully-biting spider that also occurs in East Dulwich. Its web is, though, more like the thin radial spokes of an old-fashioned cartwheel, rather than the messy splayed web of Amaurobius. Always good to have lots of spiders about, helps keep East Dulwich fly-free, don't you think.

You find some odd things in Sydenham Hill Woods. But an ostrich egg? Any ideas what's going on here?