Someone wrote that the weather is perfect for being outside. “Not too hot, not too cold, and the bugs aren’t in full attack mode.” Or something like that. People who don’t live here don’t “get” our bugs.
We don’t just have insects.
We have hordes of insects with jaws and stingers. Tiny ones that get into your eyes and ears and clothing.
Evil ones that carry disease and vicious ones that require trips to the doctor and antibiotics. And of course, the slithery ones that eat your trees for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until they are naked. The trees are naked. The bugs are furry and itchy.
This year, so far, the bugs are “normal.” I see no evidence of returning gypsy moth caterpillars and I just hope that we are back to normal again. Nothing more vicious than mosquitoes and flies seems to be out there, discounting the ever-present ants, of course.
So this is our forest. It has come into bloom. Yesterday, actually. You could watch the leaves unfurl. It isn’t summertime, so I think we are going to get a week or two of real spring, the typically missing season around New England. Not counting that it has been raining three out of every four days.
But otherwise, it’s spring.
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Categories: #DamsAndWaterfalls, #foliage, #gallery, #Photography, Marilyn Armstrong, Woods
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
We’ve got ants. Why they can’t stay outside is beyond me. Love your pics
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There were a ton of ants in all the leaves on the deck. THAT’s what got the cleaning spree started. We’ve had some serious ants and this is the time of year for them. I hate the little creepers.
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Gorgeous.
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The valley really is a lovely place. Sometimes, it’s downright magical.
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Wow – what a wonderful crop of photos, Marilyn, and all full of Spring. I’m so glad the season has finally got going for you. Like you, I’m making the most of it before the bugs get too bothersome and the heat gets too much. Enjoy the spring – at last! 🙂
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The woods is really pretty this time of year. All the leaves are so pretty and golden-green.
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They are indeed very pretty. We were out yesterday and the greenery and colour is exploding everywhere. We call it ‘may green’ over here. I find it fascinating that the leaves start off all soft and that vibrant green and they darken over the course of the summer until they turn into the glorious hues of autumn. 🙂
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It’s been so wet it’s hard to believe it won’t be a big mosquito year.
Leslie
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It’s going to be a HUGE mosquito year. Especially here with all the pools and streams and rivulets.
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Oh dear!
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We hit 71 F yesterday and that’s hot for this early in the year but it’s also welcome. We too are enjoying pesky visitors from caterpillars that sting (not sure what kind they are, I’ve never seen them before) to wasps and bumblebees half the size of a golfball – seriously that big. No ants as yet thank god, they usually show up when we hit these temps for a day (they are the flying black ants that take a chunk out of you with them) and fly off to wherever. I hate the damn things, they take a hunk the size of a pinhead and damn but it stings. Other than that, the birds have been chirping for a week (well under cover so you can hear but not see them) and I’m looking forward to the butterflies which haven’t shown up just yet. We swapped the air conditioning unit to my bedroom because it is deafeningly loud and when I head off to dreamland, we turn it off. It’s working ever so much better than having it in the kitchen, not only because of the lack of noise, but it seems to work with the way the draft and winds blow here so the entire place is cooler! Who knew! It’s awesome!
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Those HUGE bees are usually carpenter bees. No problem as long as they don’t decide to eat your house. We lost a back porch to a hive of carpenter bees. They ate the entire beam! Also, they are enormous, though I’m told they usually aren’t stingers. I was never willing to take the chance.
We do NOT have biting ants (yet), but we have house-eating and sugar ants and I spotted a beetle the size of a large mouse.
We have two A/Cs — one in the dining room and we move air from there to the living room using a standing circular fan — and one more in our bedroom. We have a couple more (maybe one — I might have given one away). That seems to work very well with very little electricity burned.
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That’s what we do too. So far only one extra fan required but I have another if needed. So far it’s working exceptionally
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We have a small one for the bedroom when it’s not quite warm enough for the A/C, but too warm for nothing.
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Gotcha
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Love these photographs; you live in beautiful country.
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Thank you. A bit poor, but at least pretty.
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Lovely…and finally spring! Here in Texas the weather is going backwards, and it’s now cool and rainy like much earlier spring. Your photos are great, Marilyn!
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The weather has gotten pretty strange have had more rain in April than in ANY month. Ever. And it ain’t over yet.
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Not really spring here yet, at least most days. But we’re putting in those darn annuals today anyway – sure hope they don’t freeze overnight.
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Today is lovely, tomorrow it will pour. The next and the day after that, more rain. Cold nights, occasionally warmish days. But we rarely get more spring than this. We aren’t in a very spring-like area.
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You’re right about the bugs — or lack of their prescence during our recent photo shoot. So very nice.
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Considering the rain, I have a feeling it’s going to be a serious mosquito year. But then again, what year ISN’T a serious mosquito year!
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