All’s quiet on the back 40

Remember the mid-summer infestation in the woods behind my house? I think it has passed. I am more likely, just now, to hear traffic from the Interstate a mile or so away than I am the furious buzz of unknown insects, out here in the country. I no longer see those big wasps flying at my window. All that has passed. Not that there won’t be Something Different to come. Last year, when winter arrived, so did the ladybugs, in the thousands, seeking warm comfort for the winter in my eaves, rafters and ceilings. I expect I’ll see them again. There is, after all, that whole life cycle thing about ‘nature’ that is inescapable.

But life has always seemed more linear to me – mostly because I’m not fond of repetition and so don’t structure my life in such a way that I’d have to do the same things in the same pattern over and over. While not being adventurous in the usual sense, I am, nevertheless always looking for a way to avoid the routine and mundane. I seldom circle back to a previous position. That’s probably why I am so at odds with being ‘Cathy, without a plan.’

The plan could, of course, be to watch for the ladybugs and then the snow flurries until spring flowers and next summer’s infestation taking flight once again. But I don’t even want to think that way.