Showing posts with label be kind to bugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label be kind to bugs. Show all posts

voila

Monday, July 12, 2010

how do you like my new look? my daughter is a talented webpage designer, (my unbiased opinion), and i think some of you have her work on your blogs, too. i couldn't resist the apple blossoms. if you're interested in her doing some work for you, you can reach her at maryslastchance.blogspot.com.

do you ever think about bugs? i was thinking about bugs today as i was pulling bushels and bushels of weeds from my flower and herb garden. one reason i was thinking about them was that i had stood in fire ants and had to run for the hose to put out the fire, i was stung by a bumble bee that i accidentally tried to pick up (it was in a flower), and when my hands were totally covered in dirt, i was bitten/stung in two places by things i couldn't even see, but which left little marks on me. (this isn't really a good introduction to what i was going to say about bugs.)

c.s. lewis asked why we should quarrel with a creature just because it has more eyes or legs than we do. he said that he had been reading by a window and a leaf blew in onto his book. the color and shape made him think it was some sort of a hideous insect. when he saw that it was a leaf, the same colors and shapes that had been abhorrent before, now added to his delight in his admiration of the leaf.

i will be so proud of you if you don't scream like a little girl and run away every time you see a bug.

oh. and i killed a brown recluse spider today.

so where are my fibonacci poems?

it's
not
that hard,
my readers
and friends. if i can
do it, surely you can. amen.

ladybugs: not just for breakfast

Monday, March 15, 2010



one of my many science projects is my sweet potato slip farm. a dear friend gave me a sweet potato "mother," and i have been pulling off, rooting, and potting the "daughters" to produce all of the sweet potato slips i want for my garden this year. please don't ask me what happens to the male segment of sweet potato society, i have no idea, and if my friend knows, she's not letting on.

the only problem with my sweet potato mothers was that they were covered with aphids. i had a sticky (literally) little chore every day of squishing the aphids so they wouldn't distract or hurt my mothers.

one day i found a ladybug charging about in another part of the house, and (now you can foresee the punch line of this story) i carried her in and put her on a sweet potato leaf. there are now five ladybugs living with the mothers, and it's been weeks since i saw an aphid.

go figure.