And after 13 hours of coma sleep, which came after a day of plane delays and shut down airports and rainstorms, which came after a fairly intense week back in the Ancestral Homeland, we are almost (but not quite) back. Regular service will probably resume around here by the end of the week.
Until then, here's a pic I took just before leaving of the very last bloom on the matijila poppy for the season. Overall, not too bad for a first time out...had just shy of 120 blooms throughout spring and summer. Now I have to figure out the best time to chop down all the stems so they can sulk all winter and return next spring EVEN BIGGER.
I have no idea what kind of bug that is on the petal, but I was glad it was outside and not in the house. Only ladybugs and daddy longlegs are allowed to be in the house unmolested. Any other bug must of course die. (In general when I find a ladybug wandering around I catch it and set it loose outside.)
I have a tribe of daddy longlegs living in the house, all descendants of the original three:
- Bobby, my favorite, who lived in the front room and would occasionally drop down on a line directly above my computer and hang out, wiggling his legs. He had a big butt and was kind of hefty. The first time he dropped down it was kind of freaky, but then I got used to it. I figured he'd eventually build a web beneath the small wall shelf above my computer, which would save him time, but he never did. His web was up in the corner over the red chair.
- Shaniqua, who lived in the pantry above the fridge.
- Neil, who lived in the middle room above the bookcase in the corner by the window.
Their descendants have pretty much decided to settle in the hallway, the bathroom and the kitchen. There are four of them currently..used to be seven, but one of the bathroom settlers was stupid and was washed out. There was one above the big bookcase in the bedroom but it vanished, and I haven't seen the one who set up near the closet in the middle room for nearly a year. None of the descendants have set up in the front room, though. I miss Bobby.
For the record, I do not like spiders or bugs in general. But daddy longlegs are good luck and for me they are the symbol of Anansi, so smashing them is not an option. When I was a kid there was one living behind my headboard that I would take great pains to keep hidden from my Mom when she was in one of her cleaning moods.
