When's The Big Day?

Wiggle Man and I were out back playing with the chickens, and I had to go inside for the camera. It looked like the girls were having a bridal shower out there--pink petals everywhere.









The same reason I love our cherry trees is the same reason Hubba Hubba is...less than fond of them.

He seems to think that this is a mess. Or something. I find it incredibly beautiful.

I couldn't resist taking off my sandals and feeling those cool petals beneath my toes. And in between my toes--I was picking soggy petals off later. And yes, I clearly need a pedicure. It's on the list of things to do, really. It just gets pushed back for more important things. Like blogging. And eating cream eggs.

For my Mom, and anyone else curious about the actual size of that cicada shell from the other day:

For some reason this makes it seem smaller. It really is much bigger and more disgusting that it seems now. Really. Disgusting and crusty.

Oh, and keep checking back. We have a verdict in the Mystery of The Missing Cream Egg.

Not So Wordless Wednesday

Well, at least I got to come home to one of my favourite sights:





I love it when the cherry trees blossom. Wiggle Man and I were out playing with the chickens who live in the pen next to the trees.

It was idyllic. Until I put my hand up to lean on the tree and saw:

Nothing like an exoskeleton to ruin a great moment.

Grab A Shoe...Preferably Fee-Fee's....

It started innocently enough. Early one morning, I decided to get a head start on some laundry. I went downstairs to our very unpleasant cellar, where the washer and dryer live. (I fought like the dickens to keep them upstairs, but I lost. There's really nowhere else to put them, so several times a week I must trudge down to my "scary basement.")

I started the washer, filling it with water. I added my bleach, looked down, and there was the most disgusting cricket-spider. What are those things? They're not crickets, they're not spiders...I have no choice but to hyphenate. Can anyone help me out?

Here's what it looks like, drowned, slightly disintegrated in bleach, and thrown with disgust (and a little fear that it wasn't dead, I'll admit) onto our driveway:

Time to...Grab a Shoe! (Preferably Someone Else's.)

Yes, kids, it's that time again. This is the part of the show where I display various bugs, in honour of my roommate, whose shoe I used all those years ago to kill that giant spider in our dorm room. Seriously, friends...it was 'sgusting. So, without further ado, I bring you: Bob.

We discovered Bob on our trip to Kenya in '06. One morning, after a particularly heavy rain the night before, we arrived to work and found him there, quite comfortable in the mud. The quarter, of course, is not Bob's. We put it there for context, because Bob is THE HUGEST SLUG we had ever seen. Up til that point. Because, apparently, that's the normal size for African slugs.

In retrospect, Bob should have used the quarter to make a quick phone call, or at least used it for cover, because within minutes of this picture being taken, Bob was squished. Poor Bob.

Don't even get me started about the termites there. That's for another edition of Grab A Shoe, Preferably Someone Else's! (To re-visit previous episodes, check out my Yucky Bugs.)

Grab a Shoe, Preferrably Someone Else's: Scary Ew Bugs

I've been wanted to do another edition of this for a while now. I have a very special bug, close to my heart (thankfully, not literally) that I've been wanting to feature. You would not believe the difficulty I've had in getting the picture. It's just on the computer in my studio, yet getting it off has become a project.



Instead, I give you the Scary Ew Bug. For the longest time we didn't know the actual name of this nasty thing, so my dear friends dubbed them Scary Ew Bugs. Picture this: a younger me, arriving to visit my best friends during a college break. Winter, I think. I arrive on a bus, late at night, and it's around 3 am by the time we get to their apartment in a beautiful old home. I go into the bathroom to get into my jammies, and at some point, the nastiest, grossest bug I had ever seen (up until then) goes running under the pile of clothes I had on the floor. You can imagine the jumping and screaming that went on, as I ran to get Bev. (Steph, I think you were already sleeping. Smart girl.) Bev nodded wisely, and told me it was very likely a Scary Ew Bug I had just seen.



Thanks to this site, (which also is where I got the photo) we now know that they're not actually called Scary Ew Bugs, but rather Scutigera coleoptrata, or house centipede. They'll always be Scary Ew Bugs to me.

For Rhonda (Grab a Shoe--Preferrably Someone Else's)

This is for Rhonda, who just scolded me for not having posted in a while. I didn't actually think anyone was paying that much attention, so now I feel special. :) Thanks, Rhonda! I will blame "Habitat" for my lack of posts, since I've either been on the Habitat trip, or recovering from it. It was hot, muggy, and I'm pretty sure I gained some weight thanks to those southern ladies and their yummies, but I loved every minute of it!

I've been mulling around post ideas in the back of my mind. I noticed many of my fellow bloggers have regular features--days with pictures, etc. You'd think I'd try something normal like that, but no. I've always been a little warped, so I want to do a recurring feature on insects. Specifically, the weird ones. And so, here it is--the inaugural "Grab a Shoe--Preferrably Someone Else's" post on weird, gross, oversized bugs. I should add the title is in honour of my college roommate. Once upon a time, there was a hugely large disgusting spider in our dorm room. For reasons I cannot explain, but largely related to the intense fear I felt at that moment, I decided my best course of action was to grab my roommate's shoe, and use that to kill the hugely large disgusting spider. She has never forgiven me.

I have a few bugs up for the honour of this inaugural post, including some sentimental favourites, but since I already have the link ready for this one, I give you...*drum roll*...The Sphingidae! I can hear your collective gasp of wonder as I type this. The sphingidae, or 'sphinx moth' as my sister-in-law explained it, is a moth that is often mistaken for a hummingbird. I thought it was a funky species of bee. The little critter was flying around our car Thursday afternoon, and The Hubby and I couldn't agree on what it was.

Thanks to D?T at Flickr for the picture. Stay tuned for more weird, gross, oversized bugs. If you have any pictures of your own nominees for the "Grab a Shoe--Preferrably Someone Else's" posts, by all means, submit them!