Friday, May 29, 2009

More Fun With Bugs

A drawing done the other night, from the day's memories...

Above is a fleeting moment in the lives of two boys who love bugs. Or, more to the point: bug hunting. And bug sequestering. And so on. Every once in a while, they also love bug squishing. But for now, they are generally very good to the bugs they find. They feed them and add little extras - leaves, twigs - to the bug containers, to make their captives' lives that much more comfortable. If it's weevils, though, they scream, "MO-O-O-O-O-O-M! There's a BAD BEETLE! QUICK! SQUISH IT!"

Interlude: Why is it that Moms are always given the most thankless of tasks? I ask you.

The other day, we were slo-o-o-owly making our way home from school, with Tomi stopping at every tree and searching... searching... searching... I can't imagine what took me so long to figure out what it was that was so interesting at the foot of the trees. Ladybugs, of course. Tomi claims that the trees are usually full of them, though this is the first I've heard of it. In any case, we got to the very last tree of our homeward path, and Tomi gasped with delight: "A LADYBUG!" He scooped it up and carried it all the way home, despite the relentless tickling, where we sequestered it - of course. The next morning, Tomi gasped again and cried out, "EGGS! SHE LAID TWO SETS OF EGGS!" And sure enough... So we gave her a leaf full of aphids, to encourage her growth and that of the eventual larvæ. We shall see what becomes of this experiment...

In any case, excitement abounds! Heh! heh!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Weevils Wobble...

They really do! Not that I think you wanted to know that. I didn't want to know that, either. But when you've whacked upwards of a hundred of them (and that's not including their larva and the pupæ), you start to know these things. And more.

But hang on. Did you even know that weevils exist? Because I didn't. But they do. And there is a huge nest of them on my terrace. I used to think they were dung beetles of some sort. (Don't even get me started on the pigeon nest under the terrace. Or the view from our neighbour's hallway window...) Then, when my parents were visiting last Xmas, we went to the Natural History Museum, and what to my wonder?! but the little beggars were pinned in there with so many more worthwhile subjects, labeled Otiorhynchus ligustici. I noted it down, but was told by a guy at the nursery not to worry about them until May-ish.

And now it is May-ish. And we are being overrun. Overrun, I tell you. So I started whacking yesterday. The boys loved that. I didn't. Then, after a bit of a web-hunt this evening, I went on a weevil hunt. Dug out the old pine that was languishing against the wall in the back of the terrace, and found, to my horror, absolute masses of the creatures and their spawn. More whacking. Ugh. Went out about an hour ago, and, well... had to start whacking again. So...

Tomorrow I'll be off to the nursery again, to buy me something nasty (but organic). I'm not really for this kind of thing, normally, but I can't keep the whacking up. It's got to stop. And these beasts are eating all of my lovliest leaves.

There's one for you: Did you know that weevils eat only the tenderest leaves? I did; though, as I've already taken pains to explain, I didn't know it was weevils until this afternoon. I also figured out all on my own that they are creatures of the night. And that they are extremely tenacious. They can hold on to the side of a flushing toilet for half of the flush, for instance. But when they "get it" (and if they are not in a toilet bowl that is being flushed), they drop and play dead. This took me a while to catch on to, unfortunately.

Okay, I'm all weevil'd out.

One last thing, before I head to bed, though:
I was reading to the boys last night, when there was a strange sound, as though someone were hurling pebbles at the windows and missing (thankfully). We ran into the kitchen as Jean-Philippe was calling to come and see, and saw the above. The boys pulled on sweatshirts as soon as the hailstorm had ended, and began a frantic race for ice-rocks, which we stashed in the freezer for... what? Later? I dunno, but it was cute. And then it was over. And so was the Little Golden Book. And lights went out. The end.

'Night-'night!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Making What?

Above Bat Cat and Dr. Archibald Techt (it's not easy to see, but Leo'd made a whole series of bridges out of dinosaurs, so that the Pokémons wouldn't have to touch the water and risk getting eaten by sharks (?! Frankly, I'm not sure which would be worse: shark bite? dinosaur bite? shark bite? dinosaur bite? The debate rages on...)), last October 20th.

Was cleaning up my studio space (a good-sized corner of the living room in our apartment) this afternoon, and came across one of the trillions of little notes I've scribbled out and lost over the past 39 years. This one was from 20 October 2008; not as far back in the mists of time as others I've found over the years. Anyway, it made me laugh (again)...

Leo
Can you print some Pokémon pictures?

Mom
Not now. Right now I'm trying to clean up this house (indicates the table, piled with life's important documents and detritus), clear some space...

Leo
It's what, "clear some space"?

Mom
It's "cleaning up an area", "making..."

Tomi (in a sing-song voice, from their "workspace")
...making babies...

Mom & Tomi
ha! ha! ha! ha!

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Scalawags!

(pre-script: translations at the bottom of the page)

So... The boys peed and got their hands, faces and teeth brushed tonight, and we settled down to read. One of the things I read was A Busy Year, which Gramma gave Leo for his first birthday, and which I hadn't read in a few months. As we got towards the end, Leo said, "C'est l'automne !" and Tomi said, "C'est presque Christmas ! Le père noël va venir !" and Leo said, "Yeah, an' he's bringing caca !" to which I absent- and motherly-single-mindedly (as in: we-are-reading-a-book-let's-concentrate-on-the-book) said, "Oh, Leo, come on."

And then we got to the last page:

December came... and then it was Christmas. Winnie stepped forward to give Woody her present. "What is it?" asked Willie. "Manure!" said Winnie triumphantly.

Leo and Tomi collapsed in one of the most startlingly hilarious fits of giggles they've had to date. They certainly couldn't have heard me read:

But Woody laughed. "Fertilizer is just what I need." And she meant it.

They are such a gas.

Oh, and speaking of which: when I kissed him good-night, Tomi giggled, "I farted!" ...and they collapsed again.

Like mother, like sons, I guess!

Speaking of whom...

Above are a couple of pictures of Puck and Peaseblossom, (a.k.a, Christopher Robin and Robert Louis, a.k.a...) taken on the sands surrounding Marseille and the Island of Frioul. I'm going to try and blog about it all, but we had an absolutely excellent time in Marseille, visiting friends - notably, Agnès, our aulde guardian speed roadster demon friend-of-friends - and soaking in the sun, being flung about by the mistral, walking to break Rimbaud's records, eating and drinking copiously of all things local...

****************

translations: "It's autumn!" "It's almost noël! Father Christmas will be coming!" "Oui, et il va amener du poop!"