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Zouzounia are bugs and flying things. It's a word used often by a greek Yiayia to describe an overactive grandchild.
The summer bugs have started to appear. Last night we had the first mosquito of the season buzzing round our bed and I had to get up and plug in the mosquito repellant device. In an older part of the house as I was doing some cleaning I heard the soft 'click click' of a small lizard. Unfortunately the mosquito wasn't in the same room. The lizard, a gecko I think, could have had a nice meal.
The big black ants have surfaced in the garden. They mainly stay there. The tiny ants that are hardly larger than tealeaves haven't appeared out of the walls yet. I suppose we will see them just before the next rain. The smaller ants are a harbinger of bad weather. What we don't want are the red ants which give a very nasty nip.
Daddy Long Legs drift up and down the big balcony doors. It always amuses me when certain locals remark how big the 'mosquitoes' are this year.
As I mentioned in another post this is the year of the snail and the caterpillar. The latter are turning into yellow and white butterflies. They flutter around the geranium flowers.
In the last few years we have had hordes of praying mantisses, grasshoppers and other jumpers. They are not around yet or maybe this is not their year.
There are no flies or wasps yet. I have found a few frogs in the garden, hiding in dark corners. I hope they don't disappear.
We were talking with a neighbour last night about the wild life here. When we first bought this house the fields were full of partridges and pheasants. Now there are none.
We still hear birdsong in the early morning and we've seen a few swallows. There used to be a lot of blackbirds who trilled at dawn but they are few and far between. Most of the birds are magpies, a few sparrows and we still see a hawk or two hanging in the sky searching for prey.
Spiders are always around. I can tell that by the darn spider webs hanging in every corner, big, black from the fire, and sagging undecoratively. The house badly needs a spring clean.
The carpets need taking up and cleaning, the outdoor spaces need to be water blasted ready for summer living, winter clothes have to be packed away.
Give me a glass of red wine, quickly. Fill it up with ice. It's too warm to drink at room temperature .
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You have a veritable menagerie there!
ReplyDeleteWe used to be happy with our geckos in Tenerife as they ate some of our mosquitos. Over here we get midges, pesky little blighters that seem to consider me an all day all you can eat buffet.
Thank goodness we haven't had mice for a while. Probably helped that we had a good yarn clean up. Forgot to mention snakes. They must be out of hibernation now. Hope they are few and far between
DeleteI was thinking about the ants this afternoon as I looked up at the beams still showing the signs of the white powder I showered them with last summer. The appear from within my walls here too, many great bit flying ones as well as small crawly ones all over everything.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness we don't often see the flying ones. The walls must be full of ant nests. They come out of the tiniest spaces. We have ceiling beams too. They must have been well treated before they were used.
DeleteOur beams arent centuries old
DeleteZouzonia sounds like a cuddly toy souvenir you from a zoo. I don't mind anything but rats. Midges probably second.
ReplyDeleteIts a cute sort of word
DeleteThe children it's used to describe usually are Not cute!
Ugh, I dislike bugs unless they stay outside :-)
ReplyDeleteWhere we are, we have no mosquitoes, but if we hike in the valley, there are quite a few. We have lots of lizards and birds though, that's one of my favorite things about morning, is the birds. But we will have ants, I saw one this morning making it's way up my coffee mug.
Ants are so annoying. They get into everything even closed jars of honey. I hope it's NOT their year!
DeleteI do not like spiders. At all. They are not welcome in my home.
ReplyDeleteBut we have had a terrible year for them. Everyone has been complaining about them. Since my eye sight is getting worse I don’t see all the cobwebs so I miss some.
I don't see the cobwebs either, because I don't want to see them. Others point them out. Ugly things
DeleteLoved hearing about the wild life (what a shame you have less birds around your home now). We are having problems with mice at the moment - the cats keep bringing live ones into the house so I am getting lots of opportunities to exercise my vocal chords!
ReplyDeleteOur wild cats used to leave dead mice around and once one got into the house. That was horrible. But thank goodness we haven't seen much of them lately. There must be loads of field mice around here
DeleteArrrghhhh..... so many bugs, not my favourite. I always seem to have a daddy longlegs in the house and ants outside (and sometimes inside). This year the crickets were bad and we had lots come into the house. We won't discuss the odd cockroach, I hate them. It's funny though, the last two summers we hardly had any paper wasps yet previous to that they were prolific.
ReplyDeleteWe hear crickets on summer evenings. I hope we still do. Cicadas during the day are so loud, but not yet. Thank goodness I haven't seen any cockroaches here. Nasty things
DeleteIn the park I now encounter small swarms of Gnats; always at face height. Annoying little critters!
ReplyDeleteNow and again we get midges, usually late summer. Thankfully they don't hang around long
DeleteAt least you don't get the scourge of city living - cuccarachas. We saw some big ones on the street yesterday. Yuck. What do you think has driven the pheasants away - is farming around you changing?
ReplyDeleteWe used to have the large flying variety of those nasty brown things when we lived on Piraeus . I'm surprised, and happy to be so, not to have any out here in the country.
DeleteAs for the birds, we can't understand. No farming, no pesticides, that we know of , no wild dogs though there are a lot of wild cats. No hunting around us either. We used to see pheasants walking down the road. No more
I do like the praying mantis and was always happy when I saw their cocoons sitting on the outside of the house waiting to hatch, it'll be interesting to see what insects we have here on the west coast come summer.
ReplyDeleteWe had a huge number of white butterflies this year, there are still a few around. Mice are in large numbers too, probably because where they lived is being turned into a housing estate and they are cold! We get the odd cockroach too, luckily not too many. There is a resident daddy long legs in the shower, it can stay so long as it does not come near me! Sad the pheasants had vanished.
ReplyDelete