Friday, April 25, 2008

It's Official

Fiddleheads from my backyard!

Spring is here everyone. I'm pretty sure I won't be getting anymore snow for a while! If I have left any doubt in your mind how I feel about this, I'm p.f. happy!

I am having a house guest, so this has led to a major spring cleaning crunch. My ex and still very good friend, is coming to visit me from California. The weather has been fantastic, for the last two weeks, like summer almost! In the seventies, close to eighties, sunny. It's exactly this kind of thing that brain washes all New Englanders into staying here, and living through yet another cursed winter! Even I have almost forgotten how dismal it all seemed just last month.

I planned all kinds of activities for us, like cycling, kayaking, hiking...etc. so of course it's going to drop to the 50's and rain all weekend! Good ol' New England. Unpredictable my ass! It's a sure bet when someone from a beautiful climate comes to visit, they will leave questioning your sanity for living here.

I spent the day yesterday cleaning up all the leaves and branches and crap off my lawn, and mowed it. Not that it's really grown that much, but it does in spots, plus the mower does a great job of sucking up and mulching the leaves. It was a pretty gruesome task. The leaves were all dry and the mower made a huge dust cloud for me to walk around in and breathe in as I mowed. But wait, there's more...the little black flies are out. They buzzed around my face and head the entire time, in my ears, in my eyes, pinging off my forehead, and my personal favorite, up my nose when I inhaled. I swear those little flies would make me crazy if I had to endure them for very long. It would be a very effective torture method. It was almost enough to make me wish for snow again. Almost!

Chronic complainer! One more from the bitch, bitch, bitch series...

15 comments:

Ed & Jeanne said...

I don't think I've ever seen a black fly. We don't have many bugs around here at all.

RED MOJO said...

ve, I'm truly sorry you've been deprived of the experience! oh, and..stay where you are!

Anonymous said...

What a quick change of weather conditions you have in New England. Amazing! It seems to me that you for just a few weeks ago were complaining (!) about the huge amounts of snow. And now there are black flies. Are they biting you?

Anonymous said...

Yea! About time! (I always thought fiddlhead ferns were so cute.)

Ces Adorio said...

I would not call it complaining, just reporting. If we can't talk about the weather, what shall we talk about? - Traffic? Have fun with your guest!

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I so love fiddleheads. I used to gather them from beside the stream that ran through my property in Vermont.

I have never been able to find them in specialty markets anywhere else, even in San Francisco, probably because if they are not eaten before they unfurl, they become poisonous.

Can I come for a visit, too, and relieve you of all those nasty old fiddleheads that are clogging your landscape?

RED MOJO said...

wieneke, You're right the season aren't very gradual here, it's almost like flipping a switch. They flies don't bite, but they fly into everything, they make me nuts!

citizen, about time is right! Man, this winter was long!

ces, I like that better; reporting!
Thanks, I will.

heart, I'd love a visit! Come anytime, and if you time it right, I'll even cook up some fiddleheads for you! ;)

TheWeyrd1 said...

We had record breaking snow in the mountains, but not so much down here in the "valley" especially when compared to last year and our freakish back to back to back to back to back, etc. weekends of blizzards. Of course, we get all four seasons, every season. So today it's been sunny and then snowy and then sunny...all in a matter of a couple of hours. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 60's and then in the 70's on Monday. Last week we had a few days of almost 80. Yeah, as we like to say out here in Colorado, if you don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes or drive 20 miles...

Baino said...

Haha . . I live in the land of the fly! You need an Aussie Akubra with little corks dangling from it . . we all wear them when riding our Kangaroos down George Street with a Fosters in hand don't you know?

RED MOJO said...

theweyrd1, Sounds perfectly dreadful! Thank you.

baino, I didn't know. You certainly paint a colorful picture! I'd hang corks of my brazier if I thought it'd get rid of the flippin flies!

kj said...

ok ms. rm: time for tulips and dafodils and no more dried up leaves. i hope you have color all around you and screw those little flies!

:)

tsduff said...

I've never had fiddleheads - though I've heard they are good. I have baby asparagus growing in my front yard - but they are so cute I can't stand to cut them and eat them.

Anonymous said...

I'm back! Thanks for your comments on my blog while I was away Red Mojo :) Hope you've been having fun, it's been three days since you started complaining about possible rain... I'm doing a whole two weeks worth of posts about my rainy holiday on my Photo Blog Heehee. As well as hopping down George Street wearing a cork hat, Aussies aren't Australian if haven't swallowed a whole batch of flies through our noses ;)

Unknown said...

Don't you hate that? As soon as it gets warm out here come the fricking flies.

At least here it's fallen below freezing again after a warm-up so they're all probably dead now.

Debra Kay said...

Just got back from the Bay Area-they've been having crappy weather but it was nice for the time we were there. We have buffalo gnats in Oklahoma-nasty creatures. Avon skin so soft repels them.