My decision to write about Alice, Artist, Goddess of Nature has made my blog so much more fun for me! And as Alice is so prolific it has given me a ton of material to write about. Every year Alice entrusts me with a nest of baby ladybugs (in England these insects are called ladybirds which I like a lot more). They literally crawl out of the woodwork near the window in my office and cling precariously to the screen.
(I wondered what that strange noise was, it's the sound of rain falling on my roof... yippeeeeeeee!)
I have to get my ladybug catcher... an old prescription bottle... coax them into the bottle, and release them on a hibiscus plant on the deck. Some fly off immediately. But some stay around for days as there is a veritable feast of aphids (which I believe they eat) on the flowers.
Above is a photo of one of those ladies who chose to hang around for a while... along with a visiting cricket.
Of course, ladybugs are a symbol of good luck, so I feel especially lucky to be in charge of these beautiful little creatures. Did you know their red coloring actually scares off predators?
If memory serves me, the ladybugs usually arrive in the spring. But here they are in January. There were only about a dozen over a period of several days, whereas in the spring I have to transport that many in a day over a week. So perhaps this was just a trial run.
(photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)
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