Buds and Bugs

As nature is slowly reborn, so did my blog start breathing again. Taking advantage of a much-awaited Easter break, we took to the hills in search of signs of spring. 

Unfortunately, we haven't had truly nice weather since...oh, I don't know, August lat year? Ever since then, it has been either snowy or rainy or bitterly cold or gloomy or all at once. Yesterday was no different, but we decided to brave the rain come what may. What do you know, we survived :)

 

I remember this time last year it was already warm enough to lie on the grass, but at the moment the hills still look asleep:

 

However, we did find some of the signs of spring we had been looking for:

The discoveries even included some bugs I had never seen the likes of in my life. As the experienced entomologist that I am, I proceeded to categorise and name them. Thus, I give you discovery no.1, the brass bug:

Given the activity I caught this one in the middle of, it should have been called a bonkbug, but I thought that didn't sound too scientific. So I settled for "gunmetal bug". Yes, its colour was just like in the picture:

The rest of the day was all buds, rain and ravens (the latter not pictured, the former very much photographed).

Yes, I think we're onto something here: a very mild case of spring, albeit with a risk of full eruption and serious contagiousness in the near future.

A Nightmare After Easter

Newsflash

As soon as it got warm, I got ants in my food cupboard. As it usually happens with ants, they don't get killed or put off by the stuff that should deter them; au contraire, they come back for seconds.

Last Friday, a pipe burst in my bathroom. The bathroom got filled and overflowed into the kitchen, which got filled and overflowed both into the hallway and outside, down the stairs into the courtyard. Wearing my beautiful fluffy slippers in ankle-deep water is not so cosy. But at least I'm hoping all the water might have drowned the ants.

It took me and the landlady a good couple of hours to mop up all the water and get the carpet off the floor (and the furniture off the carpet) for drying. As soon as the kitchen floor was dry, the dog came in and peed on it.

Ah, the little joys of life!

(above is an unrelated but recent pic of me from Easter in the forest with family and friends)