Mark Twain

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do ...
Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

Friday, February 18, 2011

Walking, heat wave, and stink bugs


Walking continues ... better this month than last.

The sky was most amusing.

While I was walking I looked over my left shoulder and saw this angry dark sky.


And over my right shoulder was this beautiful blue sky with puffy white clouds. Go figure. Mother Nature isn't sure exactly what she wants to do.

Increasing total monthly mileage ... that is what I have decided to focus on this year. At least that is what I plan to do right now. Check back in 15 minutes and I will probably have changed my mind. :-)

The February weather has been pretty fabulous - actually compared to February 2010 - it is a heat wave today. In fact, I was totally overdressed on my walk for the 73 degrees it is right now. Wearing jeans, a long sleeve polo shirt, and wool socks, I was sweating bullets by the time I returned home. Others were more appropriately dressed: shorts, short sleeve shirts and sun hats. For February 18th, it felt like a May day. But the walking was good and I have now changed into my summer clothes (it is February 18th for gosh sakes!!) and I have a large glass of ice water by my side. Life is good.

And, of course, with the warm weather came the first stink bug. I am typing here in the living room, and I can hear Milo snorting around in the kitchen. A quick check revealed that Milo had hunted down a stink bug and was terrorizing it. Those pesky bugs are probably hatching in the millions outside right now, but this one found its way into my house and it is now floating in the toilette. But the TV news reports say that this should be a bad year in this area for stink bugs - "of biblical proportions" - I believe they said. And since they have no natural enemies here it probably will be very bad indeed.

But no sense borrowing trouble. The weather today was letter perfect, my windows are open and the walk was great ... and one wayward stink bug does not an infestation make! (Not yet, anyway.)

Enjoy your day!




4 comments:

happyone said...

I've been killing a stink bug a day for the last couple of weeks. They are all upstairs and I have no idea where they are coming from.
Glad to hear you are getting in some good walks.

Linda said...

We had warmer weather and our first Lady Bug but tomorrow the cold is suppose to be back. The sun was such a treat today. Sounds like it was warm enough in MD for spinning on the deck (hint, hint). Love you :)

Mo said...

I am a natural enemy of stinkbugs. :D

Anita said...

Ah, the old stinkbug....at least one always hitched a ride home in our blackberry bucket, and let us know it was there during the washing...ick.
Where I live, they show up in hot weather, but there's never been a plague of them.
Bluebirds were here this weekend; I don't know what insects they may have found to eat. They came near the feeders, but didn't partake.