The Mayfly - Bane of My Existence

These yellow-winged insects are called mayflies. They resemble drawings of prehistoric creatures with horns and forked tails and nasty little eyes. That's why you will not be seeing an up-close picture of them today. That's how much I love you.

I wouldn't trade my ponds for anything, but that is where these bugs breed. That's why we have them in multitude on the property. Apparently we're a lovely mayfly nursery - lucky us.

You don't really see the flying around, mostly because they attach themselves to every surface of the house. They seem to love our front door in all its pretty maroon and glass. For a while I let them stay there just because they're God's creatures, but it didn't take long for me to get past that.

If they weren't such revolting-looking creatures, it might not be so bad, but I can't help thinking about horror movies where the infestation starts innocently enough, and then small children are being carried away to the mountains.


Mayflies only live for a couple of days in their adult form. This is a pretty good thing, in my opinion. But before those two days, they shed their skin like a snake. Then you have twice as many little things clinging to everything - including the screen to the deck.

Now, this is where I draw the line. The patio door is the largest window we have and it overlooks the ponds. This view is one of the major reasons we bought this house. I refuse to have my joy stolen by little winged creatures that stare at you and twitch their little forked tails.

So, when the rains were coming yesterday, I carefully (well, not really) brushed them all off. I thanked God for the robin that I saw dining on one of them. The rain carried off many of the rest.

Now, I feel no shame or guilt for this because they would have been gone today anyway. I'm sure the Lord created them for a reason, but it wasn't to be decoration on the side of my house. I'm just encouraging them to get out and explore the world in the short time they have here on earth.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit
Read more