18/08/2024
Summer 2024 part 1
Large birds of prey drift high above in the thermals surveying all that lies below, they’re stealthy hunters and I’m pretty sure that they don’t miss much of anything that happens across the valley. I also reckon they have taken an interest in my welfare - a huge winged visitor took an unexpected swoop down the other day in order to check out what the fuss in my garden was all about. The neighbourhood crows had already yelled out their call of derision, if only the vulture had listened the trip down might have been avoided. Birds, like humans, don’t always listen to each other.
I didn’t listen on a fiery, clear sky, July afternoon when a visiting 4 year old said she felt rain drops. It made me smile - her cute imagination playing tricks no doubt. Yet, she was almost correct in that there were drops, just not rain ............I’m kind of glad that no other humans have been around recently to overhear when I utter words I never expected to be saying, and it’s a fairly regular utterance now: ‘stop p*eing on me!!!’. Who knew that cicadas sq**rt p*e? Lots of it, and there are – it seems – a lot more cicadas around this extra hot summer. I’m not terribly disturbed by these screeching, hapless, unattractive creatures, not overly anyway. Their all day mating chorus has taken over from the sweet birdsong that fills the air in spring. A few crows let out a call every now and again, but the little birds have moved away from the densely populated cicada terrain where the air is busy with the frantic movements of un-coordinated insects. In their mating urgency, all sense is gone. They fly in through the car windows then refuse to leave; any time I’m outside they bounce off my face, head, legs and at night are a real nuisance. They’re daft enough to decide that car headlights, or car interior light, or a small torchlight all herald another dawn breaking so leap out of the darkness and launch themselves in the direction of said light and of course land on yours truly just trying to make her way the short distance to the house. Where of course they will enter if I fail to secure the screens. So far, to my knowledge, I’ve not been p*e-ed on indoors, but outside – hah!!!!....you only need to look at the car windscreen to get an idea of the copious amount these cacophonous creatures must imbibe.
As for refusing entry to the house, that’s a whole other matter.... moths find a way through any gaps or tears in my hastily assembled screens, as do a weird variety of hard backed green insects who then rattle loudly against plastic lampshades. Mosquitoes, of course, will always seek out a breech in defences. Worse, far worse, are the practically invisible blighters who easily make it through the summer nets, no tear or breach required – they’re tiny and can soar through nets and deliver a bite that itches for up to an hour, even after remedial creams are applied. Without after bite applications, like the times you forget to stop at the pharmacy and replenish stock, then don’t expect to sleep for a long time while intense itching runs it’s course. To date, no amount of copiously applied insect repellent has provided protection to sufficiently repel the little pests, like sun beams finding the one bit you missed with sunscreen they will make their way there. In order to sleep at this time of year, keeping a fan on full blast is a perfect deterrent, ultimately less irritating than the bites.
This is country life in a hot climate!
Another impressive aspect - if one were to be so intrigued - is the resilience and persistence of the ants that are convinced that my kitchen is their kitchen, in fact that any spot in my home is theirs. I’ve studiously consulted google for natural solutions. I’ve scoured (and bought) the array of chemical solutions in shops and have made countless attempts at ridding the house of unwanted guests. To no avail.....until, in a surge of brainwave activity I suddenly ‘knew’ that an alternative product must have been created, that I could not possibly be alone in this dilemma. Immediately, upon keying in the right words, google produced the answer I sought and within days I had purchased from a local shop a syringe of potent gel that has meant my days are no longer plagued by ants and the mess of worktops covered in anything ranging from baby powder to cinnamon or vinegar; or the dismay when yet another aerosol merely serves to delay the storm-trooper ants. The gel is available it seems on request and not stocked on shelves, not around here anyway. What a find, what a relief.
Nothing to be done about the cicadas and their not so appealing ways, my quandry: do I tell a 4 (now nearly 5) year old what it was she felt? Hmmmmm....I’ll go ponder the question while I take advantage of a sublimely warm, calm sea.......
https://www.destinationcrete.gr/nature/large-birds-of-prey-in-crete/
https://blog.cretamaris.gr/2019/08/cicadas-the-shrill-sound-of-summer/
https://cyclingcreta.gr/the-noise-of-the-summer/
https://natureguide.gr/desc/Insects/Green_shield_bug/
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