The Canadian Chronicles: Jiminy Crickets!!!

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Jiminy Crickets!!!

One of the most unusual phenomena of September has got to be the invasion of the crickets! Who knew this was a thing?? I did a little Internet research and found this information, which very accurately explains why so many crickets this year. Glad we had a lovely, warm, dry summer and glad we had that much needed rain but I could really do without the crickets!!!

Dry summers cause cracks in the ground, which gives crickets plenty of room to lay their eggs.

Once the moisture hits, those eggs hatch.

The little harbingers of evening are everywhere and they chirp ALL DAY LONG! It is driving me mad! I had no idea crickets appeared any other time than evening in the summer. Their chirping was always a signal that it was time to go home when we were kids playing outside in the neighborhood. I can only assume they are now a signal that it is, once again, time to go home. Inevitably one...or ten get into the house and start chirping. My quest is to find them and smash their little bodies into silence. Finding them is not an easy task for a person who only hears with one ear. Stereo hearing would be very helpful in locating the little buggars. I'm like a crazed woman stalking the incessant chirping every night before I go to bed. No crickets all summer and then Labor Day came and bam! Crazy chirping crickets by the thousand... all chirping their little legs off and telling me it is the evening of another summer. Time to go home...before I go mad!

Rain shower responsible for the birth of a million crickets?!

I used to love September. It was a month of beginnings, hellos, new adventures, anticipation of the "year" ahead. The past couple of Septembers have been much different. Labor Day is a sad day up here, at least for me. It is the weekend we say goodbye to all of our summer friends. The last weekend of our idyllic exisitence together. The shore gets very quiet and lonely after Labor Day, unless you are a cricket. There are a few of us still bumping around enjoying what seems like the most lovely days of the summer. I will go home, eventually.... and try to cobble out my old life. It will be bumpy because it just isn't socially acceptable to wear workout clothes all day and there is no grass to mow and no vegetable garden right outside the back door, no beautiful sunsets and cocktail hour every day at 4 is probably not going to happen. September is now a month of goodbyes. It is a month of closing things like the cottage and the farmhouse, my least favorite part of our summers up here.

Not wanting to close on a downer note, I'll leave you with a few September photo gems, because September really is a lovely month up here...even if there are a million chirping crickets annoying me while I clean the fridge out and pack my bags.