Category: Life

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.

Recent Blog Posts

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.

Borrowing Photos Belonging to Others – Not Cool!

cowry seashells
My Cowry Seashells photo

I imagine there are many clueless bloggers and such out there who think it is perfectly fine to help themselves to anything they find on the internet.  They see a great photo and it suits their purpose, or they think their readers will be impressed with the pictures on their site, so they add it.

It’s not theirs in any way, shape or form, but they put it up there for readers to view without even a link back to the one who did all the work – took the shot in the first place!  They never think to ask for permission, or even admit it’s not theirs.

That is simply rude.

Have you ever visited a blog with fantastic pictures but clicking on them takes you nowhere?  And the blogger gives no credit for them.  You may read and think, wow, he / she has a great photo.

All the photos on my New England’s Narrow Road blog (except for the ones used through Zemanta – a great resource), are my own!  It’s one of the reasons I blog – to share my photos of the New England area.

I have a blog, Sandpiper Wedding, to write about beach wedding info and I’ve linked to Etsy designers many times using their photos – with permission from the Etsy shop owner!  It’s not hard to ask permission, and I think you’ll find that many people will be happy to have the promotion and link.

I recently began to enjoy the Pinterest website.  It’s a great place to share pictures that (many times) lead to ideas for decorating, cooking, and purchasing great products.  But I’ve also noticed that many times great pictures lead to nothing when they are clicked on.  If a photo leads nowhere, how will the person who took it get credit?  Even if the picture is fantastic I do not add it to my board, as without a link, it is not right to promote it.

I recently had (and still have) an issue with someone who is using one of my seashell photos as her own on her blog.  When searching for this particular shell type, my picture comes up and is linked to her website!  Yes, I am ticked!  She has no way to leave a message or contact her on the site, so I left a message on her Facebook page, which she apparently ignored.

So please be considerate when you need pictures and use the ones that are listed as “free” to use and don’t just go grab any old photo you see on the web.  We photographers work hard to promote ourselves and our blogs, and truthfully, when I’ve been asked, I usually grant permission for use of a picture- with a link back to me!  It’s only right.

Please visit my Cowry Shell page @ Seashells by Millhill and like, tweet or whatever – so I can get IT to be the one that shows for the shells that are mine!  Thanks.

Here are some great resources for adding free photos to your blog if you don’t have Zemanta – which is the easiest – here at WordPress.

Pixabay and MorgueFile are two sites that I use to get free to use, public domain images for my work.

Dreams About Water and Bridges

Floating Bridge in Brookfield, Vermont.

When I was young, my parents took my sister and me on vacation to Vermont (we lived in Massachusetts – flatlanders!) and went across the Floating Bridge.

The bridge actually floats on top of the water on a bunch of barrels, but the creepy thing is that water also comes up over the bridge – that is it in the photo.

As a kid I was scared to death to drive in a car over a bridge that already had water on it and looked like it was sinking! I can’t remember how old I was, but I still – at least 40 years later – sometimes dream about it, and often dream about both bridges and water.

I love the water. And I find bridges fascinating – especially interesting ones. I’m not really afraid of heights – not too bad anyway, but thinking about the Floating Bridge makes my skin crawl. In fact roadways under water are too eerie to view. When the news shows flooding with roads disappearing into vast expanses of water, I have to turn away and hope I won’t dream about it.

So thanks Mom and Dad for the nice vacation.  All I can remember – for the rest of my life – is sinking down into the water as the car crossed a swaying, creepy bridge!