Today was ideal for gathering dandelion flowers. Two of my neighbours have plenty and, importantly, have no dogs, so I was able to do a good turn while gathering a golden harvest for a ratafia. That’s a posh word for something made by macerating fresh plant material in alcohol, sweetening it, and leaving it to mature into something rounded and drinkable.
I’ll give you the recipe in a few days’ time, if it works as planned. If it doesn’t, I’ll simply delete this post and forget all about it.
This post is about a denizen that lurks in flowers, waiting to seize and devour unwary pollinators.
I had never noticed it before. But gathering the flowers, teasing the golden filaments from the green base, revealed a different world, one ruled, quietly, by a colour-changing arachnid.