Friday, January 13, 2017

"Later Mom!"




This is a story about a young boy without dreams, without ideas and sometimes even without thoughts of his own.  


At school, he was a well-mannered child who had plenty of friends to keep him occupied.  Although his studies were not as good as they could be, he managed to get the bare minimum done.  When the teacher asked him to stay after school for extra help, he would simply say, “Later”.



 At home he was engrossed in video games, and computer games and of course the occasional television show.  When his mother asked him to do his homework, his answer was always, “…later”. 



When his mother told him to take a bath, or brush his teeth or comb his hair, he would always say “…later”. 



 And sometimes even when his mother told him to come for supper, he replied, “Later!”.



Being a young boy without dreams, or challenges, thoughts or ideas, can be a pretty tricky state of affairs, especially when this young boy becomes a man.



Because what you are depends on who you are and what you think of yourself, the choices are very limited for anyone without an idea of what it is they want to do.



Upon asking this child for a desired occupation, he would only suggest a “computer programmer”.  When asking him if he would do his math in order to accomplish that goal, he would reply as usual, “…later”.





Well months passed on, and this young boy’s friends began to change.  They no longer wanted to visit him anymore, because all they did was watch him on the computer, and so in time they felt that he had no goals, or challenges, or imagination either.  Quite simply they found him boring.



Ironically when this boy had invited them to his house, they would reply, “…later”.





Well, I don’t have to tell you that as the years went on, and the little boys schooling became more difficult, he would find himself struggling and anxious to get home to his computer.  His teachers were very disappointed in him.  And eventually he became embarrassed at his inability to do the simplest arithmetic.



One day, he had decided to stay after school to get some help with his geometry, because of course he didn’t want to be embarrassed.  His teacher said, “not tonight I have a dinner meeting, perhaps …later”.



When he asked his mother for help, she had given up on asking him to do his homework years ago, and so her reply too was, “I am off to the plaza, perhaps …later”.





All out of sorts, and out of wits, he decided that perhaps he should depend on himself.  And the thought finally struck him, after so many years of unthoughtful thinking, he began to realize, that he should have always depended on himself, and then he would be in a better situation today.



Well, I guess I don’t have to tell you that the little boy became a man who upon his first thought on that fateful night begun many thoughts afterwards. And he became quite successful in business.  Upon tutoring and self-teaching, he did finally become a computer programmer. 





And when he became a father and his son ever uttered the word “later”, he would simply say, “later is too late, for someday you will realize that now is a present gift, that you should always take”.



                                        The end.



Inspired by – my sons.




Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Green Frog

On a beautiful spring morning, when Mishy was going on a discovery walk, she almost stepped heel to toe on a little green frog!  It wasn't really all her fault, for the frog did his best to make sure he was hidden...but not well enough!


Just before going into the water with her foot, Mishy noticed something pop up above the water's surface.  A closer look, she saw 2 bulging eyeballs look up at her from a pale green head! 


Startled and shaken, the frog looked up at Mishy and simply said, "do you want a game of cricket?" to which made Mishy laugh and reply, "no sir! I almost stepped on you!"  to which the frog replied, "I thought you were going to eat me, so I changed my color to brown right away! I only live for 3 or 4 years, so I would like to enjoy them!"  and with that Mishy decided to sit down on a rock close to her new friend, Mr. Green. 


Promptly she asked him where he had been all winter long, because he had no fur or coat to wear, so she was curious!  "I was fine! my gal friend and I just found a neat little spot together at the bottom of a lake in some mud"  Mishy stood up straight and pointed to Mr. Green and said "That's not true! How could you possibly breathe all through the winter at the bottom of a lake?!"  Mr. Green just shook his head and said, "you don't know much about frogs, do you?  We can breathe from our lungs and our skin, so when its cold, our bodies shut down and we become lazier, so we can breathe fine just through our skin alone until the temperature gets a little warmer.." With that Mr. Green went back down under the water to bury himself into the mud.


"Wait!!" called out Mishy,  "Don't go! I didn't know, that is pretty amazing! I sometimes wish that I could live under the water too..."After a minute or so Mr. Green emerged once more in a full and beautiful lime green color onto the rock beside her.  After a bit of silence, Mr. Green said, "how did you get here anyways?" to which Mishy smiled, "In a VW Beetle of course!!" Laughter was heard from the other little critters in Crooks Hollow...and soon under the days sun, they all came together for a little game of Cricket until the sun came down in Mishy's Small World.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Green six-spotted tiger beetle


Mishy has been noticing a pretty scary looking little green fella in and around the woods lately!  Actually the last time I seen this green, shiny spotted beetle, he seemed quite comfortable on the cement too!  Luckily I didn’t step on him, so I reached out and got closer to him only to notice he had 1-2-3-4-5-6 polka dots on his back wing! 
This is why he’s called the 6-spotted Tiger beetle!  Much like its distant cousin, the carrion this little guy loves the water, and is found most often close by watershed, or floodplains, muddy creek banks and really anywhere where there is lots of plant life!  
In the grown up world of biologists, this little guy is considered a PREDATOR! and very AGGRESSIVE because they eat bugs like crickets, fleas, gnats and even cute little grasshoppers (Mishy’s favorite). 
On a good note, Mishy has come to realize that everything serves a purpose and for this reason, a large tiger beetle will feed on spiders and other pesky bugs and have become known as a great helper for our gardens and our farmer fields!  
Oh one last thing, don’t ever be discouraged if you haven’t spotted one for longer than 10 seconds, they are clocked as the fastest moving insects ever, so it was gone before I could say thank you!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Mourning Cloak Butterfly




While walking through a brushy creek valley on a warm spring day, Mishy saw many butterflies overhead.  There must have been hundreds of them! On closer inspection though, there were only two!  Probably a husband and a wife because they were chasing each other around through the poplars and elm trees that hovered above me coming to rest together on a wild rose bush close by. 

A closer look I noticed their rich burgundy colored wings outlined with creamy white border.  I never saw this type of butterfly in Mishy’s small world, although they are the most widespread of all butterflies!  If you haven’t guessed yet what they are called, they are called the “Mourning Cloak”.  What a fitting name for them! The scientific name is Nymphalis antiopa, but I can’t pronounce that properly so I will like their other name better!

By the end of the day, the number of insect-eating birds increased dramatically, but even under the baking sun, all signs of the mourning cloaks disappeared up and down the creek valley.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Ladybug


Remember when you were a kid, and  you were either lonely, sick or sad?  Then a ladybug appears on your finger or if you're lucky rests herself on the tip of your nose and as you look into her eyes, you feel better?  Mishy had another visitor by her favorite riverbank in her small world.  First she flew quickly passed me and landed quite close to me.  I asked her to stay still 'if you please, because soon winter will come and I know you are cold blooded and you will hibernate during the winter.  So I might never see you again" and with that, she stayed still for me to take her picture.
I had to be quick because her little wings actually beats over 80 times a second! That's even faster than a hummingbird who beats 50 times a second.
A lady bug is a sort of beetle and she wears either an orange or red dress with black spots or in some parts of the world, she will don a black dress with red spots!  In choosing, well naturally selecting these clothes she is actually very smart, because in the natural world her bright colored clothing is often viewed as unsafe or unpleasant to eat.  So birds won't eat her and if that fails, she's got another trick up her sleeve and she just falls to the ground and plays dead.

Tiny lady bugs can eat aphids which can destroy crops and plants and her name actually came from a Legend that dates back as far as the Middle Ages at a time in Europe where crops were being damaged by pests.  Farmers began praying to the Blessed Lady, The Virgin Mary, and well legend says that soon lady bugs began to appear and saved the fields from pests! So you see this is when her new adoptive name was lady beetle, which through time she has been introduced simply as "LadyBug".  She's been known to bring luck and good fortune and Mishy was sure fortunate enough to have seen her.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Grasshopper on the river bank


While sitting on the water's edge waiting for a view of a salmon or trout, Mishy had a great surprise!  I looked down beside me and there on the grass sat a tiny grasshopper!  At first it didn't really look alive let alone look much like a grasshopper.  It blended in so well with the dead leaves on the grass, I wasn't quite sure what it was.  But suddenly it seemed to look up at me as if to say, "well, are you going to take a picture or am I going to have to wait here all day?" So with that, I grabbed my camera from my bag as he  patiently waited for me to find the correct setting to take the most perfect shot my camera has ever taken so close up!  I thank you wherever you are.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Shrinking Plants and Animals!

By now you must have heard about the effects of global warming on our planet.  Changes in temperatures, extreme weather changes like droughts, heat waves, tsunamis.  There is less oxygen in our oceans and shrinking glaciers! It's all pretty sad and scary stuff!

Now recent studies have shown further results that many of our species of plants and animals are also shrinking because of warmer temperatures and lack of water.  This is probably the scariest thing to happen in Mishy's Small and Shrinking World!

Spiders, beetles, ants, cicadas and my favorite insect of all, bees have all shrunk because of climate change.  Shoots and fruit are between 3-17% smaller and fish have shrunk up to 22% for each degree of warming! But there is hope and evidence is seen in all life forms.  One simple word, adaptability.  Darwin calls it, Natural selection.  Whatever changes occur in climate change or  its effects, life forms will adapt.