(no subject)
Apr. 10th, 2003 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccDoing a quick browse through last year's entries I realised what's been different about this year.
Fewer insects.
I think it's due to the drought putting everything back. Our grapes are maturing now, when normally they'd be long gone. The figs aren't ripe yet, but they're coming along.
There were almost no ants inside this year either. Normally the ants ignore the tons of fruit outside and come into our kitchen to fossick among the crumbs. This year we haven't had the usual invasions. Perhaps Dean's chemical warfare last year was enough of a deterrent, but I think it may just be that fewer ants matured.
I only really noticed the lack of insects after the first heavy rain, when the cicadas started singing. Until then I hadn't noticed the absence of a deafening chorus - normally of course I don't notice that there is a deafening chorus!
I really like the cicadas. I realise that this might seem odd, given my aversion to millipedes, but I'm used to the sound being always in the background during summer - to me it is a sound of summer. It's also a sound that everyone develops industrial deafness to, as I discovered when I was living OS and my family sent me a tape. The cicadas were incredibly loud. My family didn't notice them at all.
So now, as the autumn days are hot and the nights freezing - making it difficult to know what to wear, if nothing else - the evenings are filled with the sounds of summer. Wierd.
Fewer insects.
I think it's due to the drought putting everything back. Our grapes are maturing now, when normally they'd be long gone. The figs aren't ripe yet, but they're coming along.
There were almost no ants inside this year either. Normally the ants ignore the tons of fruit outside and come into our kitchen to fossick among the crumbs. This year we haven't had the usual invasions. Perhaps Dean's chemical warfare last year was enough of a deterrent, but I think it may just be that fewer ants matured.
I only really noticed the lack of insects after the first heavy rain, when the cicadas started singing. Until then I hadn't noticed the absence of a deafening chorus - normally of course I don't notice that there is a deafening chorus!
I really like the cicadas. I realise that this might seem odd, given my aversion to millipedes, but I'm used to the sound being always in the background during summer - to me it is a sound of summer. It's also a sound that everyone develops industrial deafness to, as I discovered when I was living OS and my family sent me a tape. The cicadas were incredibly loud. My family didn't notice them at all.
So now, as the autumn days are hot and the nights freezing - making it difficult to know what to wear, if nothing else - the evenings are filled with the sounds of summer. Wierd.
