Ladybug in parsley. View One.
Life is so weird.
After writing yesterday’s post about my current camera conundrum (say that fast three times) I am suddenly feeling re-inspired about taking pictures.
Twice today have dug out the Canon Rebel and photographed.
The first photo shoot involved a ladybug discovered in parsley purchased at the grocery store.
Imagine! A bright red ladybug crawling through deep velvet-green parsley.
Perhaps some folks might be disturbed at insects in their groceries, thinking them vile creatures worth annihilating immediately, if not sooner.
Not I.
I delighted in the bright red crawling creature. Isn’t she beautiful? Isn’t she vibrant? Doesn’t she remind one of spring as a possibility?
Ladybug in parsley. View Two.
Do you know how deep our snow is?
Two nights ago Barry and I shoveled off his yard-boat. (I call it a yard-boat because it’s missing a motor–he’s working on it–and the boat is not currently operable.) My job involved holding the ladder whilst he shoveled heavy deep snow off the precious yacht.
All was lovely until we marched into the snow on the far side of the 24-foot boat. I repeat, do you know how deep our snow is? Crotch level, dear readers. Are you getting a visual of how much snow must melt until crocuses bloom?
Do you know how hard it is to walk in crotch-deep snow? Try to picture lifting one leg and then another. It is not a pretty picture. It is an excruciatingly slow process. Of course, we could have found snowshoes. We didn’t. We eventually propped the ladder against the boat and he shoveled. Both of our knees hurt by the time we reached dry land once again.
On a sadder note, I watched a deer cross the road a couple of days ago. It moved so slowly. It hesitated before jumping into the high snow, and then hardly gathered the energy to move in the impossibly deep drifts. I suspect many deer are dying now.
Will this deer (photo from last year) still be alive come May?
Long winters cull the deer herds. In theory, this is good because in recent winters deer have multiplied and multiplied. Car-deer accidents increased. Deer are everywhere.
But when one sees one single deer struggling–our hearts go out to it.
“Please survive the winter,” one whispers to the struggling deer.
One looks at the single ladybug struggling to climb a store-bought parsley. What should one do? Kill it? Put it in the basement? Throw it outside in the snow? Put it into the compost?
One never knows.
Lake Superior Spirit 
I was wondering what you did with the ladybug – still wondering actually. What does one do with ladybugs when the snow is crotch-deep? Do you have a houseplant she might enjoy until your snow is melted?
I think the ladybug is pretty and I would place her safely in my ivy plant 🙂 And then when summer gets here, I would take her to my garden 🙂 You really do have a lot of snow! It’s melting fast here–can see patches of brown yucky grass already. But more snow is expected tomorrow. I would be sad to see a deer struggling through the deep snow too and I would send up a prayer for his safety and strength. Sending up prayers for pain-free knees today for you both. Alex and I are going to make homemade pizza today…yumm 🙂 His spring break is winding down and Monday he’ll go back to school.
She is a most beautiful, incredibly vibrant ladybug. I’m curious, too, as to what you did with her. A houseplant with aphids with be perfect for her (although nobody really wants a houseplant with aphids other than a ladybug, I suppose). I would feel sad about the deer as well, even if the snow is Mother Nature’s way of thinning the herd. I was going to say I can’t imagine that much snow, but I can because we used to have snow like that here. We haven’t been getting as much the past few years.
Isn’t it funny how when we declare we don’t want to do something, the personality rebels and says, “Oh yes I do!!” lol! Happens to me a lot.
What a beautiful ladybug! What a delight to discover her! I wonder where’s she been? I’m glad she’s with you now because she’s in good hands. I’m sorry we can’t bring in the deer, even though I know it’s supposed to be “nature’s way” of culling through this long winter … I hope that you and Barry are letting your knees rest today. Such hardy souls, you two. Also hoping that all the appliances are working properly in your sweet abode …
I doubt that you killed Miss Parsley Ladybug….probably put her in the
woodpile,…..somewhere safer than the woodpile…..
Fountainpen
Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about! 😉
a red ladybug is good luck — not so much her orange cousins
sounds like you are ready for spring, as are the deer
Poor ladybug! Take care of her!
Okay, we get ladybugs in our house as spring approaches and have already, despite snow outdoors, had two or three. What do I do with them? Nothing! I let them crawl wherever they want to crawl. What harm can they do? Anyway, I tell David (and can’t believe no one ever told him this before!) that it’s bad luck to kill a ladybug.
Kathy, you have spring in your house! Your ladybug is beautiful, and that parsley is so vibrant and green. Happy weekend to both of you.
Well on this side of the pond they are celled ladybirds and not bugs. Don’t ask my why I didn’t invent the language I just speak it. So you should tell her to go home because her house is on fire. – ah well cultural differences and all that. – prayer for little nan- don’t forget it.
I loved the thought of the red on the green! My brain frowned at food safety of items from a store missing a bug. I’d be pleased if it were out of the garden. I guess it would be odd to shovel out a square down to the grass in the yard, like you sparked me to do one year–when I was more of a ^**%$#$ about winter and snow and non-green. I’m reading The Wild Places 50 pages a day, until completed and now I’m off to begin <The Codex Alera, a series by Jim Butcher, for fun. I finished The Dresden Files books.
oops missed closing tags, for italics on codex alera.
I have ladybugs off and on, even through the winter. I don’t know where they stay, but once in a while I will see one. I usually pop it on a house plant, but I’m sure it doesn’t stay. I hope you will soon lose all that snow. That’s way more than we have here.
I had no idea you were thigh deep in snow! That is amazing and obviously a major challenge for you and for deer and ladybugs. Your lil ladybug has good taste in people and herbs. Maybe you could get one of those growing parsley plants they sell in the markets and let that be her temporary home. May your snow melt quickly so your world will bloom.
The ladybug makes me think that there’s no nasty pesticides on the parsley. A good sign.
Crotch-deep snow ! My condolences.
Sad for the deer too.
Mail “her” to me..I can use her in my greenhouse or “wintering over room”. Quite a pretty lil bug, but don’t want her in my oven! or soup. Hurry SPRING..
Leave it in the kitchen. Can’t hurt anything. That’s what I did last week when I found one on some store-bought lettuce. Haven’t seen her since, but that’s ok, too. ❤
For me the answer to what to do with the ladybug is to put it on another household plant. I came across a ladybug in my bathroom the other day and placed her gently on one of Husby’s plants in his office. Regarding the deer? It’s the cycle of nature, I guess, for them to perish if they can’t manage the snow. But when you’re close to them you certainly want them to survive no matter what. Husby and I caught a rare look at twelve deer walking down the railroad tracks by our house…in the suburbs!
Good luck with the snow, to you, the animals and the insects!
I feel like a Deer. I wud’nt survive the freezing cold either, may be. Hmm. Kathy.
Very nice photos of a ladybug, lady. 🙂 My dad has a place in Wisconsin in the country, and his wife feeds the deer. He’s taken photos of herds of deer in his yard eating the food and sent then to me. I’ve suggested that it’s not a good idea, but, well, what do I know? I’m a city girl. The ladybug brings me back home to the Midwest. I haven’t seen one of those in years down here in Florida. We don’t have lightening bugs or lilacs either (heh, ladybugs, lightening bugs, and lilacs, 3 L’s). It’s the lilacs I miss the most. Maybe by the time you get back from Florida, the snow will all be melted, and soon you’ll be putting up pictures of lilacs for me.
Your photos were beautiful and the story touching, but of course I can only focus on the fact that a lady bug on anything is a sign of aphids, so I would be tossing the green that it came on. I am weird that way. I do feel for the deer. If they are struggling so, what is happening to the rest of the wildlife. Too bad Oklahoma can’t have some of that moisture to help them with their drought.
How colorful and springlike, your ladybug! We only have thigh-deep snow in some places. The fields near Traverse have some exposed plants now, so we’ve watched herds (hordes?) of deer feeding. My sensitive little heart doesn’t have to worry about their starvation now. Poor things
It is such a bag of mixed emotions as we curse the overpopulation of deer causing our near-misses on the highways, yet our hearts break when we see one struggling because of injury or illness. Suffering is suffering, no matter what the circumstance or species.
The snow is so dense this time of year, too, I understand your aching knees! Lovely photos, Kathy, thank you!
How happy I was to visit today in time to see the Ladybug who is offering to be your guest for awhile. You had a ladybug miracle – I hope she is still inside with you. It has snowed every day for a week here in Breckenridge. Tree limbs are groaning with the snow load and the cold. I am mostly inside looking out because I’m still in hibernation with my allergy. It’s two steps forward (like in deep, deep snow) and one step back every day. However, that still means I’m making progress. Earlier today, I dusted the Lady in Rock and thought of you – thought I’d like to see what’s happening in your life right now. I wonder which of us will see ground first around our houses? I think it will be you, Kathy.
I think I want to see a picture of the yard boat drifting on snow waves.
How delightful. She looks like a real lady bug too and not one of those horrible asian beetles. The deer are having a rough time but our snow is crusty enough for the turkeys to walk on it. I spent an afternoon this weekend watching one jump up and grab a branch from a bush and then let it spring back and shake all the seeds and new buds off onto the crust. He was feasting. very smart.
Those lady bug pics turned out amazing!
What a sweet little ladybug – when my daughter was small and I used to hang clothes out on the line, a ladybug would often land on a piece of clothing and I would scoop her off and let her crawl onto my daughter’s hand. Lady Bug would then have a nice long visit with Lady Larisa before heading back out on her journey. 🙂 I hope you welcomed your ladybug to stay inside until all that snow melts!!! Great pictures!
Love the photos of the Ladybugs, Kathy! I would keep the ladybug on a houseplant, And I’d probably give it a name. And maybe its own blog.
Thank you all for stopping by to see our little red ladybug in the parsley. You will all (well, most of you) be pleased to know that the ladybug has been spotted flying around the kitchen! It is still alive. Also want to advise you that our snow is melting–hurray! It is dripping, dripping, dripping. As long as more snow doesn’t arrive, we’ll be slowly meandering toward full-fledged hopes of spring…
Love the little red lady bug. Do you know that you can log her into the ladybug project?
I have never experienced crotch deep snow, except in the far-flung corners of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter. Can’t imagine trying to navigate it without snowshoes! (Even *with* snowshoes, crotch-deep snow is an unwieldy beast!) Your poor knees. 😦
I keep coming back just so that I can see, hear, and say, CROTCH DEEP SNOW! What a descriptor! I have a poem running about in my head about crotch deep things.
What a beautiful little ladybug, Kathy – I also think they’re a sign of good luck. And I think it wouldn’t have been climbing on the parsley, if the parsley wasn’t very, very healthy and fresh and organic. 🙂 So there you go: a ladybug stamp of approval.
I would put it on some potplants inside the house, seeing that you still have far too much deep snow out there!
As for the deer – awww, the poor thing, can you put some food out for them? Or would that cause other problems?
I’ve been tossing our ladybugs outdoors. May still be too cold for them but seems more like fate then. Yours did look spring-like on the parsley! My kids went snow tubing yesterday!
So sorry about the deer. As for the ladybug (which we, here in the UK, call Ladybirds – don’t ask why, I’ve no idea) they should be kept alive. For a start, they’re pretty. For another, they eat aphids and other small bugs that will infest your plants. I think there are only one or two (rare) species of ladybug that are ‘bad’ and this isn’t one of them. I’ve got a photo somewhere of a yellow one, with white spots, taking off from my finger! Bruce saved it from drowning in our pond, about… oh, I’d say this was about a decade ago. Very pretty too.
That snow sounds awful… well, the depth of it anyway. The plants beneath will just bide their time and do a sort of plant-sleep until it clears then you’ll barely know there was any of the cold white stuff.
And your photos? It’s the magic of saying you didn’t want to take anymore – it made you turn contrary! 😉
Hugs.
So much to think about in the post of ladybug, deer, and snow. First I wish ladybug could tell stories. I would like to hear this one’s. I can’t imagine snow so deep. Im exhausted just thinking about it. And that sweet deer. I hope she makes it.