Rosie’s Ramblings – Summer 2024

Rosie’s Ramblings – Summer 2024

I must apologise for the lateness of this Summer edition of The Villager, owing to family commitments over the past few weeks. We’ve had a wonderful month, spending time with our daughter and her family in North Carolina, and last week enjoying a visit from our elder son and his family, who live in Montreal. Back to “normal” now – if there is such a thing! And so to my “Ramblings”….

“How old are you?” the park warden asked my grandson. “Six.” replied Rhys. “Well, next time you can see these creatures, you’ll be nineteen.” We were out for a walk in the Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve, not far from our daughter Susie’s home. We were gazing at an exotic-looking large insect, about an inch and a half long (3.5 cm), with a black body, large transparent wings patterned with delicate veins, and strikingly prominent bright red eyes. The warden explained that this was a Riley’s 13-year cicada.

These creatures spend most of their lives underground as nymphs, then once every 13 years, they emerge to turn into adults, make a lot of noise, mate, and lay eggs from which the nymphs hatch after a few weeks, fall into the soil and start the cycle all over again. The adults only live three or four weeks and we just happened to be there as they were emerging. I found it quite amazing – the idea of spending thirteen years (why thirteen, for goodness’ sake?!!) underground and then only a few weeks above as adults, filled me with wonder.

Within a few days they were everywhere – it was hard to avoid stepping on them as we took the new puppy, Rocco, for his morning walk. It was also completely impossible to stop Rocco eating these crunchy creatures, which he clearly found delicious! Just after we arrived back home, Susie told us the noise level had more than doubled, but now, only a couple of weeks later, the cicadas have disappeared completely.

It’s one of the joys of visiting family across the pond, that we see strange creatures that we don’t find in Norfolk.

I’ve always been an earlybird, and love hearing the dawn chorus. It struck me that the dawn chorus in North Carolina was much louder and more strident than ours at home! I enjoyed sitting in Susie’s garden, watching American robins feeding three or four young in the nest they’d built in full view in the pergola just outside the back door. The young birds flew the nest the day before we left for home.

Brightly coloured cardinal birds were frequent visitors to the garden, as were beautiful purple finches. It was a joy to behold turkey vultures circling gracefully overhead, and to spot a ruby-throated hummingbird collecting nectar from the honeysuckle growing up the pergola was a pure delight.

Walking around the local nature park, we saw box turtles, and when visiting the Cypress Gardens in South Carolina, notices warned us that “alligators can be on the trails and surrounding areas” but we didn’t actually see any – to my relief!

It may be a bit less scary (no bad thing!) but our own local wildlife is definitely worth celebrating and St Andrew’s Church is fully supporting the Trowse Biodiversity Action Plan.

On Sunday 7th July you are all warmly invited to afternoon tea, followed by a “Songs of Praise” outside in the churchyard so we can praise God for our beautiful creation. Pray for good weather! Then on Saturday 13th July, we’re having a “God’s Acre Day” to focus on the wonderful nature and wildlife to be found in our churchyard, incorporating Messy Church.

As always, everyone is very welcome at any of our events and services, listed in the “What’s On” section of this magazine. We look forward to seeing you.

Rosie