Author: Pam

New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.

It’s May – Here’s My Annual Bug Bite Photo!

black fly bite
Swelling from a bug bite – black flies.

Two days ago I took this photo of my recent encounter with the New England black fly.

It visits us each Spring and I soooooo look forward to becoming deformed by it’s bite. Apparently only a lucky few of us are affected with swelling from the bites and I am lucky enough to be one of those people. Not every bite swells like this one that resulted from one bite on my upper arm. Some of them only swell to 1/3 this size, and some remain a single red blotch and don’t swell at all.

I’ve been told that only the females bite, or is it the males?  And also, someone said I will probably build up a tolerance so the bites won’t swell so badly.  I’ve tried regular bug spray, but it doesn’t work at keeping the black flies away.

UPDATE:  Finally I found bug spray that works at keeping the black flies away.  Unfortunately I didn’t discover it until just before I moved away, but the Eucalyptus Lemon Bug Spray (paid link) works on No-see-ums too, which we have here in Florida.

I have yet to figure out why some of the bites become giant red, itchy blotches. I wake up in the night and just have to scratch all of them. Between fly bites and hot flashes I am really not sleeping well lately.

Working in the yard has become a battle. I must dress in long sleeves, gloves and head-net (paid link), which are adorable, and even then they will crawl inside my clothes and bite. My stomach presently has a 4 inch wide red mark where a bug crawled under my shirt to nip me.

I feel compelled to get outside on nice days and get some gardening done so I endure the bites, but I am counting the days until the miserable pests disappear for another year.

If you are into homeopathic healing, Apis Mel, tablets and gel works great.

One thing I have noticed is that they will not follow me indoors.  I can be inside the garage or the woodshed – with doors wide open – and never get any black flies near me.  If they end up inside my car, they fly near the windows trying to escape, but don’t bother me.  They are so tiny.  How do they know the difference between indoors and outside?

For me, it’s a good idea to be outside when the black flies are less active, which is early in the morning and late in the day.  Thankfully they are gone by the beginning of June.

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Growing Hyacinths

Hyacinth flowers
Pink, purple and white hyacinths in the garden.

This is the first time that I’ve grown hyacinths in my yard.

Last fall I bought a bunch of bulbs to add to my new yard and planted tulips, a few daffodils and six hyacinth bulbs.

I put everything out front except the hyacinths and they have their own little garden area near the back deck. The package of bulbs said they were a “mix” of colors and then showed blue, pink, red, yellow, orange, purple and white flowers on the packaging, but as you can see I did not get any but pink, white and purple.

Still, they are pretty and a couple of the plants made two flower stems so I cut off one of the flowers to bring the fragrance inside.

I may get more to plant next Fall and add them out front.

Our Own Backyards And Beyond

backyard
These days, my backyard is small.

This is the first time I’ve ever lived in a house with a small backyard. Growing up my yard was huge. Next to my yard was a big field and beyond my front yard, at the bottom of the hill, was a big garden that belonged to my grandparents. My backyard was bordered by stone walls and beyond them was forest and eventually Mill Hill.

Mill Hill was where, as kids, we went to hike, sled, and goof around. It was owned by someone – don’t know who, but they had cows that would graze in the far pastures that we could see from the top of the largest hill.

Mill Hill was unusual because it was two hills that looked like big roller coaster hills. After climbing through the barbed wire fence at the “valley” part of the hills, we had to choose which hill to run up first. If there was a group of us, some kids would go one way and some the other. I usually chose the right hill because it was smaller with less to see and saved the other, taller one, for last.

The right hill sloped steeply down to the road where the mill was. We could also see the river that wound around under the bridge. That hill also held a couple of wells. They were just covers elevated off the ground a bit and my father had warned us always to stay away from them.

Next, I’d run down the hill and up the other side. Usually there was water (or ice in winter) at the bottom in the valley area so I was careful to avoid that. Then the climb up the left hill to the top where a grand view awaited. The far side of that hill had a long, gentler slope that was dotted with rocks and a few trees. One of the trees was a chestnut tree and once we found an animal trap under it!

I loved to visit Mill Hill. It was freedom to do what I wanted and sometimes I’d go there alone with my dog just to enjoy the peace and quiet and dream about my future and long to grow up. I also dreamed of bringing my own kids up there to see the place that had meant so much to me as a child.

But, my parents divorced and the house was sold so there was no homestead to go back to and I don’t know what Mill Hill looks like today. I’m sure I don’t want to know.

My own backyard now is very tiny with a drop off into the woods behind. I feel sorry for kids growing up these days without fields to run through, and hills to climb in their own backyards. Even if they are lucky enough to live in a spacious place, they no doubt spend too much of their time indoors.

I’m older now and a small backyard to take care of sounds very manageable, but a part of me wishes I could look outback past a large expanse of grass and view the stone wall with woods beyond, beckoning me to take a walk.

They’re Heeeeeere – The Black Flies Return

female Nephila clavipes from Bulow Creek State...
female Nephila clavipes from Bulow Creek State Park, Florida. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Black flies are the worst of all bugs.  I’ve lived in Florida where the spiders are the size of your hand.  Seriously, I have seen some enormous spiders in my life.  I’ve dealt with cockroaches, palmetto bugs and banana spiders (pictured) and I don’t like any of them, but none of them kept me from being able to go outside.

About a week ago I was outside enjoying our stint of sunny, dry (too dry) weather and sure enough I thought I saw a black fly.  They are tiny, but something about the way they fly past your head is unmistakable.   Then a few days later as I was watering the tulips I got bitten and they were swarming me like mad.  I had to go inside.

So from now until the beginning of June there will be no enjoying the outdoors up here in New Hampshire.   I could try riding a bike and move faster than them (if only I wouldn’t have to walk up the hills – ya, right).  I won’t be going for walks on the nice days or doing much yard work.  I will still take my chances and go outside, but one of my arms already has 5 bites that are swollen and itchy.  Ahhhh Spring.

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