As we struggle to understand what it means to be social creatures who meaningfully participate in communities and networks, ants and mice (and the scientists who study them) may be able to tell us something about ourselves.
Tag: bees
iridescences
I’m back in the village and back to posting pictures of dead bugs. After all, when they’re this beautiful, how can I resist?
The bugs in the poem below aren’t dead. They are, however, as bright as jewels in the early morning sunshine.
Continue reading “iridescences”
a is for ant; b is for…
This weekend I’ve posted photos and poetry about bugs, and I have been thinking about all the small creatures who visit us and who share our house and garden. 
what’s been bugging me
In the six years this blog has been going, I’ve posted a number of pictures of bugs and creepy crawlies, so I thought I’d bring some of them together in an entomological collection.
My very first blog bug was this giant moth (it had a wingspan of about five inches). I wrote about it in May 2007 in the post Wings in the Night:
a bee in her pocket
Last time I found a carpenter bee in my pocket, it was alive – at least until I stuck my hand in to find out what was in there and it stung me.
Today, though, the poor thing was already dead when I reached in thinking I must have left a tissue in my pocket when my jeans went in the wash.
I suppose if didn’t put my clothes on straight from the washing line, both of them might have lived, but who irons jeans?
The photo is only intended to give an idea of the size of the creature, and explain why, even desiccated in death, its bulk could be mistaken for a paper hanky. I put the keys there to give an idea of scale, and then remembered this old poem:
Continue reading “a bee in her pocket”
don't confuse the narrator 