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There was a piece on the news tonight about an early outbreak of mosquitoes in the area this year. I laughed when they were speaking to a “mosquito victim”, as if she had been assaulted by the tiny insects. It’s no surprise that mosquitoes are annoyingly plentiful in Wisconsin all summer long. But for some reason there are people who are confused as to why we’re seeing the pests so early on in the year. Well, it really isn’t all that early.

Winter has lasted into the first week of April for the past two years now. The spring has been cut short to the point where winter is here on Friday, and by Monday the weather is sunny and 70 degrees. From one extreme to another in a matter of just a few days. For this reason, people are in the mindset that insects and pesky biting bugs are arriving ahead of schedule when in fact, they are arriving right on time. Wisconsin has been drenched in water since the snow began to melt. So not only do we have water accumulating from miles of snowdrifts, but weekly visits by rain clouds compound the problems of standing water everywhere. Standing water, as we all know, leads to millions and millions of mosquitoes. And mosquitoes lead to months of miserable pesticide smelling clothing and itchy welts on the skin.

Though I am armed to the hilt with my various lotions and repellents, I too will be one of the mosquito victims this summer.  It could be worse. So far the news hasn’t reported any tick victims. Nothing is more irritating than a wood tick burrowing its’ head into my thigh for a midnight snack.

I love the Earth so much that I will go so far as to hug a tree or roll down a grassy hill when the mood strikes. Generally I will commit to a task or event to celebrate the most awesome event since my birth. This year is going to be slightly different. I’m going to celebrate Earth day by organizing a healthier, nature friendly patio garden. That doesn’t sound right… All gardens are nature friendly. This year I’m going native! Instead of purchasing buckets of dollars in fancy lilies, roses and other such showy flowers, I will be investing a small amount of time and money in growing flowers found naturally in Southeastern Wisconsin.

The area I live in has become quite developed in the past few years. And while there are parks and patches of untouched land, I miss seeing the gold and blue hues of wildflowers along the side of the road that used to lead to a park nearby. Now that new stores have been built and roads were paved through, all the land is a lush manicured carpet of grass. Nice, sure. But it’s too uniform and plain.

I also miss the bees and butterfly’s. I’m hoping that planting more natural wildflowers will help to encourage a variety of insects to return to my little area, and thus a larger variety of birds. I’m quite sick of the same old blackbirds hanging around.

It’s a losing battle. Just when I think I’ve won, another microscopic ant shows up out of nowhere. I was awake until 3am before nearly collapsing from the noxious fumes of various cleansers. Good news is that I think I’ve eliminated the majority of the infestation; anything to help me sleep better at night. I just don’t know why they won’t leave. I’m going to start hitting them up for rent money pretty soon.

I took this photo a few weeks back and there happened to be an ant crawling across the flower. It wasn’t until after I had gotten home that I noticed it. At least this ant had the decency to stay outside where it belongs. The flower is from a wild carrot, aka bishop’s lace. I didn’t know it had other names. I had always heard the story, and referred to it as Queen Anne’s Lace(QAL):

Once upon a time, Queen Anne was knitting a lace handkerchief, as she often did in her spare time as Queen. While making her most challenging piece to wrap her diamonds in, Anne accidentally pricked her finger with a needle, spilling a drop of blood onto the handkerchief and staining it. The end.

While being a pesky weed with thick stalks(even the mower has difficulty slicing through them), QAL can be charming in the early mornings. The little flowers open up, catching drops of dew that sparkle in the morning sunlight like diamonds - hence the story. It also has a poisonous doppleganger, Hemlock. I learned some other interesting facts in my new Audubon Society book on wildflowers of the midwest. The object is to find and photograph as many as I can this summer. So far I have about six. Better get busy!

It’s just past 2am and I was supposed to go to bed three hours ago. I’m still up because I happened to notice that I’m infested with tiny red ants. I don’t know where they came from. I don’t know how they got in. But I do know that I HATE ants and will never get to sleep now until I think I’ve killed off most of the invading colony.

The worst part is that I think they’ve been around for a bit. There were like, millions of them on part of an old desk. But they are so small and light colored that they blended right in with the carpeting and the wood desk. Creepy little things were all over a stack of old photos from my grandmother’s house and all up in the cat food dishes. It’s creeping me out. My skin is just crawling with the thought of all those evil bugs. Gah! I’m going back to cleaning, but I promised an update for Dougie.

I enjoy having flowers on my patio, and this year I found the coolest little plant. It’s called a candy corn vine. What started as two small 4″ vine plants a month ago have now sprouted some shoots over two feet tall. I’m so excited! If I could complain about this plant, it’s that the flutes don’t open enough to reveal the brilliant orange color inside. Aside from that, they are a pleasing addition to the once naked trellis.

I miss having a real garden. The only veg plants growing on the patio are basil and habenero peppers. Maybe next summer I’ll dig up the shrubs and plant some corn stalks. Then I could have fresh corn all summer long. Yum!(don’t tell the complex manager)

I read today that another one of the Whale Sharks at the Georgia Aquarium has died unexpectedly. Never having been there myself, it was at least on the “to do” list. I know I shall never make it to Japan anytime soon to see their exhibit featuring Whale Sharks, so the GaA was my next best shot. I guess I had better act fast, lest they kill off the remaining three before I have a chance to gawk at them.

Another hit in nature’s kingdom was taken last week by the white rhino, specifically two in Zambia. While there are still a good 11,000 or so white rhino just chillin in Africa, some asshat poachers decided it would be a good idea to sneak into a zoological refuge and shoot their only two white rhinos, killing one(and removing the horn) and injuring the other. I’m not saying they should have poached one of the other 11,000, but my god, what would possess someone to want to murder the last two in a wildlife refuge? I hope the poachers of those rhino are found and shot. They are worthless and should be treated as such.

The saddest thing is that there are still people who believe that the horn of a rhino harbors great medicinal properties, thus resulting in the ongoing reduction of the rhino population. These old medicine-man tales are about as believable as UFO abductions and ghost hauntings and need to be put to bed.

Since my updates are so very few and far between, I’ve designed the site to have a more simple look to it. For eons I have been promising certain folk that I would re-introduce the archives section. Finally I have been devoting time to switching the content over into manageable entries on uniform pages. I’ve not edited them other than a few spelling errors, so you can read my crappy entries about lunches or tv shows and what have you. You can read the beginnings of my progress in the section aptly named “archives”

To make your visits more worthwhile, I plan to include a snapshot at random with every entry. The photo may or may not be related to anything I have to say, but then you will at least have the choice of looking at the pretty picture or reading my nonsense, or both. Or neither. Whatever you desire.

February has been synonymous with cold so far. Single digits and sub-zero temperatures. Huzzah! Monday the forecast was simply blistering cold with a chance of snow or something. The high for the day was negative seven. MINUS SEVEN, with wind chill of -22. Hella cold to say the least. When I arrived home to my drafty apartment, I got to wishing I was back in Florida. Ahhh Florida, with your enticing beaches and delightfully warm weather. My winter fantasy. What I wouldn’t give to go back right now. Lets walk down memory lane…

Last October I took a trip down to Sunny FLA to visit family and worship the manatees. This was my third trip south in eight years so I wanted to do it up right. I wanted to spend as much time oggling manatees as possible since I worship the water they swim in. Such gentle creatures. They are naturally friendly and curious because they haven’t a single natural enemy. These creatures amaze me, and are the driving force behind why I want to study marine biology more in depth. I’m getting off track here. Manatees, I’d seen only one in prior visits to Disney World, so this trip was all about getting some quality time in with the manatee population of Florida.

So I’m in Florida for a week with my very own rental car, a PT Cruiser. Horrible car, but it did its job. I had scheduled several interactive activities to get myself as close to manatees as legally possible. I was happiest to look forward to :drumroll: snorkeling with manatees!!! Oh. My. God. I had looked forward to this for months. I had to get up at 4AM to make it to the tour by 6AM and get fitted for my wetsuit and stuff. There were about twelve people going on the dive and each was almost as eager as I was to hop in that cold cold water. We all watched a video on safety and how not to get arrested while snorkeling. Then we were driven out to meet our guide, Capt. Wayne. Wayne was pure awesome. He was passionate about the manatees and he had much to teach us about how to properly interact with and get the most out of our experience with the manatees. He also had hot cocoa.

The boat trip was a very chilly twenty minute ride out to a sanctioned part of the Crystal River where diving is permitted. Everyone donned their snorkels and masks and hopped in the water to hunt down the manatees. For being a tad early into the winter season, there were many manatees to be seen. I merely had to float around and they’d just appear seemingly out of nowhere. Some floated up to the surface where everyone was allowed to photograph and touch - even kiss - the manatee. Quite a few were hanging around the boat, playing with the anchor rope and ladder. I can’t even explain the awesomeness. I had forever looked forward to chillin with manatee’s, and here I was, floating next to one and scritching it behind his little head. There had never been a happier moment in my life until now. That is how delightful it was.

After about two hours of flitting around with manatees I really had to pee. Badly. The woman who fitted everyone with suits had told us “If you gotta go, go”. When you’re in a wet wetsuit, and you take off said wetsuit, it’s nigh impossible to get back in. I could not force myself to pee no matter what I tried. I floated off by myself a few times but to no avail. It was almost painful. I decided to head back to the boat, figuring I’d had my experience, and just get out before my bladder burst open. I swam slowly over to the boat where I ran into a tour mate and we started talking about how hard it was to try and pee while wearing a wetsuit. After a fun-filled ten minutes he swam around the boat and I decided to get on out when - it - happened. Oh yes. I peed in the river. I know it’s gross, but I’ll admit it felt good to finally go. I just wish my body hadn’t waited until I was right by the boat. How embarrassing. I swam away immediately because, well, even with a current in the water I didn’t want to hover near the scene of the crime.

Right away there was a tap on my shoulder. My friend from the ladder had come to get me. A manatee was on the other side of the boat swimming right up to people. Sweet! He proceeded to let me know that the manatee had been hanging out by the anchor, chewing on the rope and swimming around under the boat. Oh god. I developed a lump in my stomach. I think I may have peed on a manatee! Dear god, that’s just evil. My first life-changing interactive swim with manatees and I peed on one. I was sick. I mean, chances are good that I didn’t eliminate directly above it, but still. I was riddled with guilt the rest of the day.

The boat stayed out for two more hours before it was time to head back to the shop. What a trip. The entire experience was well worth the money and I even captured a few images to remember the swim by. I definitely would do it again in a heartbeat. It’s so surreal to just float in the water and have a manatee come up to observe you, not the other way around.

Hope you enjoyed my embarrassing story.

Some of my favorite experiences at the zoo were night visits after member-only parties (when I had the great fortune to be part of the select number of zoo benefactors). There would be a grand opening of a traveling exhibit with food afterwards. The catered food was always delicious, and drinks flowed for free. To top it all off, the zoo would keep some buildings open late for the party-goers to wander through. Because most of the guests were older pompous rich folk, they stayed in the party building dancing or sipping wine, leaving the animal houses virtually empty. It was an awesome feeling to be alone in, say, the reptile house or Bonobo exhibit. There I am, sitting in silence, watching animals interact in a completely different light than the rest of the population ever has seen. Every insect, mammal and bird has a specific night time routine that is rarely available to the public.

On one particular occasion I spent nearly an hour watching the apes. There were two baby Bonobo’s, approximately 8 months old at the time, and the entire group was sound asleep aside from the toddlers. They were trying desperately not to wake others while playing with bits of straw and amusing themselves because the idea of sleeping was not as fun. It reminded me of when I was a small child; sent to bed just before Dallas came on so mom and dad could watch it in peace. Instead of going to sleep, I’d amuse myself by putting on a play with my toys as quietly as possible. After a bit, the babies noticed me watching from beyond the glass and tried to engage me in a game of sorts. This will sound cheesy, but it was almost a magical Jane Goodall moment for me.

I think I will drive out to the zoo this afternoon, weather permitting. The winter is a great time to see animals in a more active state, and the crowds are pretty much non-existent. Maybe if I’m lucky, I can feed the giraffes.

I’ve been in contact with a myriad of creatures the past 28 years, but never in my life have I come across this:

From what I read on the internet it’s a hummingbird moth, or more specifically, a Snowberry Clearwing hummingbird moth(though I am not 100%). I didn’t want to walk up too close because frankly, at first I had no idea if it was some giant freaking lobster tailed bee or a dainty little hummingbird. It wasn’t until after I snapped a few photos that I was able to determine that it was in fact a moth. Happy that I wasn’t under attack by mutant bees, but sad that I wasn’t prepared enough to get some better photos, I walked back in to do some research. Turns out that they’re pretty cool little bugs. For example, when they emerge from the cocoon their wings have scales, and the scales fall off during flight after a short time to reveal the clear wings.

Anyhoo, I just thought I’d share with those of you who actually enjoy the odd little bug Here are two more blurred photos: