Day 144 (a gross of days)

Spider sunning itself.

Emma learnt a poem when she was very small, by Christina Rossetti, which went like this:

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.

She seems to have had buddhist tendencies, this poet, as do I. 

The only things I really don't mind killing are ticks, mosquitoes and winter moths, and there are probably some others that I can't think of right now, maybe fleas too.  But generally things have their place in the food chain and in one year there might be more of one species of insect than another, but nature tends to even out extremes.  Human beings are the ones who inevitably scramble the order.

This morning I noticed a common grackle hiding under the salvia bush, desperately trying to crack open a peanut he had extricated from the feeder.  I particularly love grackles because they are so shiny-headed and they chat quietly to themselves constantly like old men, as if to say, "Oh, here are some nuts....  mmmnh, I think I will just help myself....Ahhh, if I could just get this one out.... Yay, I've got it, I've got it, now where to go....." (Apparently they can become pests, but we only have a couple of them a day)  A bluejay noticed the grackle and, instead of doing a bit of work to get one of the nuts out for itself, it preferred to intimidate the more timorous bird, amusing itself by leaping down from branch to branch until it was right next to the other bird, trying to scare the grackle into dropping the nut.  The grackle wisely flew off with its nut firmly clutched in its beak.

We have flying ants under our windowsill.  We were very relieved to find out that they are not termites, which could be disastrous.  Apparently flying ants can also cause structural damage to your house, but they don't EAT wood like termites do.  So we have to get someone in to have a look at these insects, a specialist (imagine being a specialist in ridding houses of certain bugs!).  However, we already have a couple of exterminators: two spiders who are growing rather fat, since they have built their webs just under the windowsill, and below, on the floor, lie the shrivelled-up sucked-dry bodies of many flying ants.  Perhaps we can leave it to these specialists?

At school today one of my upper school students was doing a self-portrait and so I sat and did a portrait of her.  She loved it and took it home to her mom.  The  mouth is not that good because she talked so much!