Something is Telling Me the End of Summer is Near

One day you wake up and there they are. They are everywhere, flying in your hair, landing on your body, and sticking to your car. Nearly every surface is covered with them. Love Bugs! They appear virtually overnight, and the air is thick with the mating little souls. I can barely stand to go outside because the tickle of them constantly crawling across me is annoying. Twice a year we are bombarded with their presence. In the spring and then again in the late summer. So when we see the little creatures we know for certain that the hot humid summer is nearly at an end.

My favorite end of summer insect is the cicada. That low hum of their wings on a humid day is music to my ears. I was standing outside at recess with my class a few years ago and the hum was so loud that the kids asked what is that? I was happy to tell them it was the creature whose shell of a body they loved to find stuck to the trees after his molt. A few days later they were yelling excitedly for me to come and see, they had found a cicada in the process of molting. We stood silent around the magnolia tree for about twenty minute while he slowly emerged from his old shell. The child who discovered him got the prize of the shell to take home.
The sound is somewhat soothing to me, and I often think I should be laying on a hammock in the shade listening to the hum of those cicadas lulling me into drowsiness. 

Then there is the most beautiful sign, and no it's not the leaves. Our leaves usually don't turn until October or later. It is the Monarch butterfly.The old saying goes that when you see the Monarch butterfly expect cold weather in about six weeks.

The roadsides and fields are beginning to fill with Black Eyed Susan's and many a child can be seen dancing among them.

Okay maybe the sweltering heat is getting to me and I am just dreaming of cooler days!!