> Out feeding the chickens a little late today, ice still in the > buckets, but the promise of 60+ days between now and the end of the > week in the air, I saw a brown spider the size of a quarter walking > slowly, but with intention, across the crusted snow. > > Maybe I'm learning the hard way: last February I transplanted tatsoi > from the greenhouse to beds and lost a great many of them within a > couple of nights to CUTWORMS. I eventually gave up all of my mystic > theories on why the plants were whithering or disappearing and took a > walk in the cold one night. With a flashlight, I saw that almost > every plant had a large worm working on it. I harvest a handful in a > 30ft row. All of this, at the time, was well outside of my belief > system, since I thought that the cold blooded had no choice but to > slow down when the temperatures were below 40.
Hey Allan, Wrote this last year, the above made me think of it so... Stilt Bugs Once again it has happened. The repetition of walking across these fields though the changing seasons day after day, year after year has been transformed once again into an awe inspiring event. Stilt bugs. That's right. Stilt bugs. Do you know what they are? Well neither did I until tonight. Oh I've seen them plenty of times, flittering about in the evening sky. Or the occasional loner that gets trapped inside and bobs around under our reading light in the summer, but I never paid them much mind until tonight. Why should tonight piquant my interest in these insignificant little creatures after thirty some odd years of almost completely ignoring them? Tonight was different. It was about 36 degrees and the sun was setting, when I pointed out the ever-changing cloud of gnat like bugs to the kids. Their reaction did not disappoint me. " So? Big deal" they said. This is the reaction that I had been expecting and I instantly assumed my alter ego "Jim". "Jim" for those of you who don't know, refers to that poor guy on the old Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom show that seemed to always be introduced in a way such as. And now "Jim" will wade into these crocodile infested waters and bring us out a small (8 foot) croc so that we can get a closer look at it. Or, now "Jim" will jump off the front end of a speeding jeep to wrestle down an antelope (with very sharp horns) that is running approximately 45 mph., so we can fix this radio collar to it. While the host Merlin Perkins would be watching from a safe distance (very possibly NY city). Anyway when we come across some unusual critter in the wild, I become "Jim" to my kids. Admittedly, though these stilt bugs are about as benign a creature as you are likely to find in the wild and did not appear to pose the slightest threat whatsoever. Still the spirit of "Jim" was upon me. I started pointing out to the kids that there was absolutely no other insect activity anywhere else. "It's too cold for them". And yet these stilt bugs were buzzing around like it was a balmy evening in July. Realization quickly blossomed in their cute, little, round faces and their enthusiasm for this unusual event rose to its ultimate crescendo for a 6 and an 8 year old, which is. Let's show "Mom"! I kept marveling over how and why such an event like this would take place on such a cold evening. Then it became clear to me as if it was a memory of a time and place long ago that someone has just reminded me of and the memories came flooding back. This cold evening dance took place to remind us of the wonders that abound everywhere around us, at all times of the year, The world is seeped in the miraculous, if we only take the time to see it.
