Caterpillars in the Sun
In my neck of the non-foliated woods Sunshine n window openning weather arrived Monday. When I made a quick stop at the Village Market n the Post Office, everyone (n me, too) outside uptown was squinting, eyes barely able to open n adapt to the bright light.
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It felt like the Morlocks emerging from the underworld, after so long in the darkness ("The Time Machine") . N everyone I encountered went right along with the big local joke about the strange bright light in the sky.
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I remember this feeling from July 1986, when the Helium n Hydrogen solar-engine hid for 30 consecutive days. It hasn't been that long, this round, not consecutive with a couple of decent am's followed by clouded pm's, the very same washed out feelin of having lived thru Noah's flood. But, instead of savin two of every critter, he only saved ten-million Eastern tent caterpillars!
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This does almost seem as tho Biblical plagues are being unleashed. Or maybe more like the "Dr Phibes" (Vincent Price) horror methods of victim disposal... First the cold, then floods, then Caterpilllars (instead of locusts).
What's next? Sceeters n then Moth clouds, with only two more to go... Heat with no shade trees, n then _____???
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I've decided until the crawlies clear out a bit I'm not gonna mow the lawn, cause not only would I have to smoosh tons of them, but they're eating most of it! I'm also having allergy-eye reactions out there, n hope I'll clear up when they do.
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It should be cocoon time soon.
posted by Snaggle Tooth @ 1:23 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
waking up to the sun the other day was like a hermit coming out of his cave for the first itmes in years... waking up all confused.. wtf is that stuff coming in the window?! wait..? that's sun! holy crap it's sunny out!
i remember back in june of '98 when it rained all the figgin time for a super long time as well.. i remember it vividly b/c i was working at teh stupid pharmacy where i had to walk to work... it never failed that my pants for consistantly soaked up to the knees and my feet were still soggy when i got home after an 8 hour shift....
i nearly shit myself when i saw the weather report yesterday morning and the 7-day showed low 80's and sun nearly every day this week! woot woot!
MB, Gettin all excited about the weather report? Lotsa expleditives today! I never count the chickens before the eggs hatch.
But it does look like a northerly shift in the jet-stream is about to toast us here too.
I'm really not lookin forward to alot of heat without shade trees n with tons of dead crawlies everywhere. I may have to put up a tarp out there again, to shade the front n use the deck if we have alot of sustained heat.
I broke down n used powder-garden-pest-killer all over the yard today... Along with crawlies, bugs n beetles are very abundant!
The roses have all been stripped of leaves too, the lilac'leaves are half-gone.
btw, there's no uptown pharmacy anymore...
i guess i did curse a bunch.. oops.. she what lack of sun does to me?? lol.. that and i've been posting a bunch on some forums... lol they curse alot.. it might be rubbing off.
uptown is so different these days.. i can barely recognize it now :P
Does butterfly time follow cocoon time? Or is it moth time? I like that descriptor: Helium n Hydrogen solar engine! That works for me!
~Mike
Oh boy... do I ever miss lilac bushes! We don't have them down here. The closest we get are Myrtle trees, but they lack the fragarence.
I heard that Alberto was headed up your way. It completely missed my town by a few miles, and we really could use the rain. My grass is now taking on a brownish appearance, and we are going under a watering ban again. We can water between the hours of 10 pm to 5 am, every other day.... like I'm gonna get out their in the dark??? No thanks, the snakes are looking for water too.
Glad to see you have some sunshine up there finally, although I'm sure you are quite over the creepy crawlies!
MB, Maybe you should get a sun-lamp for the cloudy spells! lol-
Ya, uptown has a full Salerno-Block of businesses, n a new tall building goin in where the shirt-shack used to be, to replace the beat-up, holey one. I haven't taken time to look at the trees on the Bluff yet.
Mike, It'll definately be moth-hunting time soon, n winter moths too, the next cold season.
I'm afraid the butterflies may've been eaten out of food by the moth-pillars, n also won't have any leaves to use for cocoons. Maybe the monarchs will still pass thru if we get any flower blossoms...
Thanks, taking Astronomy in my last Sem (for fun) helped me think of it!
Ellen, Luckily, the Lilacs had already bloomed, but I didn't get to pick any before they n the Lilies of the valley were rotted by so many days of rain! (I did pick a couple of those in time).
I didn't realize lilacs didn't live in the southern gardens...
I just hope they survive this year to grow again the next- A very bad garden year this round!
Weird timing on the ban, got a hose-sprinkler? Turn on the out-side spigot, then turn it off from the (inside) basement valve to avoid going outside (just a suggestion). (N assuming ya have a basement).
N I hope it's not those nasty, new Japenese lawn grubs... they cause brown too, lots of non-native species taking over up here, lately...
The crawlies corpses are stuck everywhere (steps, railings, side of house) n stink pretty bad! I can tell bacterium will be a big problem between those n the poop! Newer arrivals are still crawling around out there, in larger sizes.
I can't wait until they're not!
Great suggestion, but even if I'm caught watering, the neighbors could turn me in (guess it's a good thing I'm very friendly with them) and they have a scale of fines before you get your water turned off by the water company.
So far, so good.. and nobody's paying attention to the "rule". I just have to be careful the water company trucks aren't patroling the area. Silly, isn't it?
Ellen, our village's Water Dept Trucks patrol past here almost daily. (Separate water from rest of town). I take it your town's a bit more spread out...
It always pays to be on good terms with the neighbors for sure!
If I owned this place n paid for water usage, I'd probably set-up a few rain barrels n use syphon-hoses to water from them.
Snag - Yeah, the sun seems to be hiding somewhere these days. I was getting the same feeling here in Philly. The temp's are about to go up into the 90's. Glad I got the A/C.
Peace & Hugs,
- Neo
Neo, here on the coast we'll be 10 degrees cooler than the inland 80's n 90's expected. No AC in here, just fans. Got it in the truck tho- or can go to the store if desparate...
I want the shade tree's leaves back before the heat (oh well)!
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