Susan Nola’s Adventures

It’s spring time in The Villages and we’ve been invaded by blind mosquitoes.  Not Love bugs, mind you…blind mosquitoes.  They are drawn to the light and they live for 24 hours and they smell like dead fish if too many of them die in one place.   And they BITE!    If you happen to attempt to clean an area where they have congregated, you most likely will leave patches of blood which you can’t clean up easily.  Nasty springtime bugs.

They say that these bugs come from the bottom of the dried (drying up) lakes in the area, perhaps that’s why they smell like dead fish when their little corpses are rotting?   Anyway, because of the lack of water, and because my dad loved birds and so do I, I decided to put a make-shift bird bath outside my office window…under a tree so that the lawn maintenance people won’t run over it with their tractor mowers.   An 8×8 glass baking pan has been the bathing place of at least 3 birds, so far.  And these birds, they TAKE TURNS, they WAIT their turn.  It was really touching to see how polite they are.

One Blue Jay took his/her time and was completely soaked by the time it (not sure what it was) ran off across the lawn.

I had the idea when I saw a Mockingbird, and an Eastern Bluebird as well as a Cardinal outside my window eating, what I suspect are, blind mosquitoes.   Seems they (bugs) are everywhere, not just round the light fixtures and inside the walls and ceilings of many homes in the area.  I figured with the lack of rain/water, it might be some relieve to the birds to have a fresh source.

I’m waiting to see if the location of my little bathing area is shared with other wildlife, how DO they notify the others, or is it just the luck of the draw who happens to come upon the “sweet spot” outside my window?

I love writing.  And I love the lessons from the living things just outside of my reach…

Now, if Ellen would decide to give me a car!  

As I’m finishing this post, a lizard is making his/her way to the 8×8 Pyrex swimming pond…while the birds couldn’t see me here behind the glass windows, the little guy has me in sight from beneath the open window…will he/she have enough resolve to “just do it” and forsaking all safety and wisdom, check out the clear, nearly fresh, water?

I don’t know if I have enough time to sit here to see!

The plant outside my window was trimmed during the winter and it appeared that it wasn’t going to bloom.  Around the neighborhood there are blooming Bottle Brush “trees”, beautiful in the red brush splendor.  But this tree, nothing.

Then, I noticed a couple of blooms, apparently where there was no trimming, but when first noticed, it just seemed that some of the blossoms had RUSHED to be first, to the viewer (me), it appeared that perhaps the first blossoms were trying to beat the rest of the blooms.  I made a judgement, it’s what I do, that in rushing to be first, these blooms will “miss out” on the full, spectacular, show that I’ve now noticed is about to become a reality.

There are the beginnings of what will be a massive outburst of color in the near future, or what I BELIEVE will be a massive outburst.  I’m no horticulturalist, so I have NO idea what the tree might or might not do, just thought about how I sometimes rush and rush and rush, perhaps to be first, perhaps to just “do it”, or for whatever reason…I have a tendency to rush.   How many spectacular displays am I missing by not waiting for the opportune moment to go with the flow and bloom when everything else around me is blooming?  Having already “been there, done that”, am I callous and bored with the fullness of the “team effort”?

In these days of 3G and 4G networks where the news is “old” before most people even have a chance to hear it the first time, does the Bottle Brush tree offer any lessons to anyone else?   Or just to me?

NOTE:  the bottle brush bush DID NOT follow the line of this post…some blossoms bloomed, some didn’t…and the beautiful “unfolding” never occurred.  So, YOU GO! individual bloom when you want to blossoms!!

You are 10 years old today!  Wish I could be there, wish I could talk to you, wish so many things.   Happy Birthday to My Girl!!

I’m still out in “Tampa”, there is still St. Pete a little bit further west than the Village of Tall Trees….been here since just after Thanksgiving.  The 2 month bout with 2 different bugs is behind me.  I’ve been given the ok to stay here till the Spring, but I’ve come up with ANOTHER (yes another) IDEA for income which would allow me to live in my own rented space, a footprint of a house, instead of a small bedroom with someone else’s furnishings and no real place for much of my “stuff”.   The Mustang is still (knock on wood) taking me from point A to point B…thank the Good Lord for that.  I haven’t been on a golf cart in weeks, and I’m not thanking ANYONE for that bummer.   Hardly have time for dancing, but have given my 2 weeks notice on the 3rd “part-time” job and I’m taking on 2 new, less hours, more pay, appointments.  And, there’s ANOTHER IDEA on the horizon…hope to report good news sooner rather than later!

It’s been a long, long time.   I paid dearly financially and otherwise…but, maybe it’s time.  If 8th graders can trade successfully FOLLOWING THE TRADING RULES, surely Susan Nola can go there again…

Cautiously.