Mister Summer’s arrived at our front doors for his annual visit, carrying a suitcase full of sunshine.
He usually hangs around for a couple of months and although his warm personality is always welcome, he can be a notoriously contrary visitor.
He has a tendency to unexpectedly pop-off on holiday at the drop of a Panama hat for a couple of days, allowing his greyer, rather more miserable brother Mister Rain to move in temporarily and dampen everyone’s spirits.
He certainly dampened my spirits the afternoon I left half a glass of vodka outside on the patio table during a thunderstorm and returned to find it diluted and undrinkable.
One thing I don’t like about summertime is the proliferation of ‘mini-beasts’ it brings out.
If I decide to relax in my garden with a coffee and newspaper, within minutes the creepy crawly clarion call goes up and my chair’s invaded by ants; woodlice; wasps; bluebottles; flies; beetles; big fat bumble bees . . . and spiders of varying size.
Although I’ve had a few unpleasant confrontations with insects and arachnids, thankfully I’ve never gone through what Victoria Price from Porthcawl once experienced.
Suffering from a pain in her ear, she asked her husband Huw to take a look.
To his surprise (and her horror!) he found a live spider lurking in the ear canal.
So, they went straight to the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend, where she was treated by nurse practitioner Sarah Gaze.
According to Victoria, “Sarah shone a torch in my ear, said ‘Okay’ and then went off to find someone who would take it out.”
Who was that? Indiana Jones?
Removing the spider was a straightforward task, involving tweezers, a steady hand and a lot of patience. As to how the spider got there, Victoria thought it was hiding in the hood of a coat she’d put on after swimming in the sea.
Worryingly, this isn’t an isolated incident.
A few years back, the singer Katie Melua kept hearing a scratching noise – and when she went to the doctor’s she discovered to her shock that it was caused by a spider living inside her ear.
Worryingly, it’d been there for a week!
And hadn’t the decency to pay something towards the rent.
So, before you rest your head on your pillow tonight, check there’s nothing nasty scrabbling around in your bed and don’t let your ear become a web-site!