All week my blog sisters have been writing about bugs. Now it’s my turn.
The first summer I went to Iowa City for a workshop at the U of Iowa summer writing program, I discovered lightening bugs or fireflies, well, rediscovered them. I had known all about them when I was a kid, but since there don’t seem to be any in Southern California, I’d forgotten all about them.
The week long classes always began with a meeting on Sunday evening. To get back from the classroom to where I was staying I had to walk through an open field. Picture an expanse of grass, a darkening sky and everywhere tiny flashes of light going off and on.
For the rest of the week, every evening I would find a bench by the river and watch it get dark and be enchanted by the dance of the fireflies.
I don’t care that they are really beetles or that they might be cannibals, to me they are magic.
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6 comments:
On my trips to Pittsburgh to visit family over the last few years, I'd thought that lightning bugs were becoming extinct, Betty--but the last time I was there and out at night in summer, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were back! I used to love to attempt to count them when I was a child.
Friends of mine just moved to Grinnell, Iowa -- they reported on a lightning bug hunt their 2 little granddaughters delighted in!
I remember lightning bugs from my childhood in east-central Illinois. Even the most creative sci-fi author couldn't invent something as lovely -- and unlikely -- as lightning bugs.
Extinct? I hope not, Linda.
Camille, I bet those two little girls had fun.
Monica, you're right. It would be hard to make up anything better than lightening bugs.
After rediscovering the ightening bugs in Iowa City, I noticed there were some in Chicago in June. Not as many and they're harder to see, but still wonderful.
We have lot's of lighting bugs here in NC. I enjoy them too!
How nice that you have lots of them, Crochet Goddess. When I was in Chicago in June, I just saw one lightening bug.
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