Turkey Tracks: November 10, 2021
Ladybug Days
The past few days have been an Indian summer festival—warm and sunny and delightful.
The Ladybugs gathered on every warm surface of the house—and if you opened a door, they tried to fly inside. Some of them succeeded. Some come through cracks in the house upstairs and settle in to winter over in the dry storage spaces upstairs. They land on you. They are just…everywhere.
Not all Ladybugs are the original ones we know from pictures and our childhood experiences of them. They come in different colors now, as there have been some mixing with other species from abroad. Some can ”skunk” you with a really bitter, rank smell.
Porcupine has been very present this past week.
AC remembers what a bad word ”porcupine” is and clearly associates it with his puppy experience of getting tangled up with one late at night. The outcome was a mouth and face full of quills that I had to pull out. That little dog stood so still and let me do it. There was no way I could take him to the emergency vet clinic on my own as he would have scratched his face to ribbons while I was driving. I got buried quills out of him for several days afterwards.
Anyway, porcupine has been noshing on most anything green left in the garden—including all the strawberry leaves. It won’t hurt them permanently as a hard freeze would get them any minute now anyway.
Today it is raining—so I will be able to sew. Yesterday was too busy. But thanks to David Hannan, the last of the outside tasks is done, for which I am really grateful.
Enjoy your day!
Louisa Enright's Blog 