A Garden of Delights, Garden-Variety: Don't look now...nor listen!

Just when you thought...Just as we ourselves start emerging from the shadows of the pandemic (see May 6th post), besides being informed we may have to continue some dimensions of the 'pandemic protocol' as we go to get seeds, starter plants, and extra planting soil to get serious in our gardens around here (for you in the south you've had a head start but this post is for you as well!), we find out that we may be joined by some uninvited guests....millions of them -- now how am I supposed to sustain distancing in such a condition?! 

Garden-Variety, Earthly Delights: Put these two commonly encountered terms together and what do you get -- "The Garden of Earthly Delights", the modern term given to a vintage painting by Hieronymus Bosch (a household name, I'm sure), which he rendered between 1490 and 1510, when he was somewhere between 40 and 60, a painting which has been housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939...consisting of three panels and on no matter what angle I view them (from a distance), they're far from delightful, more frightful, but I guess that's the point--check it out, you be the judge.

A Face that: "...only a mother could love..." even now, a day after Mother's Day...the face of a cicada, that is...specifically that from "Brood X". Yep, these buggers are also classified by their generational affiliation, which becomes part of their identity. This particular 'brood' has far exceeded our own quarantine, having been burrowed under ground, just hanging out, sucking sugar out of tree roots...for approximately 17 years! And you think you've been shut off from the light of day for a protracted period, think again.  This mega-hibernation to be followed by a mass emergence (don't freak out if you're in your yard at the time, they mean no harm and, although not vaxed, are not COVID as they have far exceeded our own pandemic protocol), which is followed close in time by the sprouting of wings, which allow them to progress upwards into the trees, where they make a ton of noise, mate, and die...all within a few weeks (quality over quantity?). Their orphaned progeny ("Brood P", for Pandemic?) will then return to the ground and live another 17 years, plus or minus...

Crickets! What I'd rather hear...but "crickets with bamboo?!" That's what some are calling for...Oh, THAT kind of Cricket, the kind played with a 'bat', not the kind we're used to around here, but the ones made out of willow, the supply of which has been strained. So some scientists have called for a more sustainable, yet durable source of bats found in bamboo. But because of a 'sticky wicket', as some purists point out, the strict interpretation of the rules of  "Cricket" call for bat blades be made out of wood (i.e., willow). While bamboo has often confused with a tree, we can't be too hard on these uninformed individuals, as bamboo can extend as high as 100 foot, but strictly speaking bamboo is 100% grass!

Can you imagine the sounds of lawn mowers trying to forge even a path through such a lawn, mixed with the sounds of "Brood X", crickets, and the like...mixed in with the melodic sounds of our voices as we go through umpteen mower blades...

Ah, the sweet sounds and sights of nature, just what we've been waiting all winter for...