A few years ago I was without a chap to do things like disposing of mice and other vermin, ah isn't that a great word - vermin vermin vermin in the gloamin, wermin, worming, warming, oh sorry, we had a lecture on the Dada movement today and it seems to have affected me.
Anyway, back to the story. At that time my daughter, then aged about 5, was extremely fond of all living creatures to the point that she was practically a vegetarian. One day as she watched me spray a cockroach she burst into tears.
I explained that they really had no place in our home as they contaminate food etc... to which she replied between sobs, and with an agonized expression on her face "I know that Mum, and I know we have to kill them, and rats too, and I hate them ... but they are the same as everything, they're just trying to make a living!"
And they are too you know.
But they still make me feel screamish.
Except one.
Dear old Archy. I wrote a Pause for Poetry about him some time back:
ReplyDeletehttp://wwwtheothersideofparis.blogspot.com/2007/06/pause-for-poetry-6.html
Never seen a bug have his own stage lighting before - such interesting shadows!
ReplyDeleteWord verification :- upestio !!!
Aaaah - to your daughter, not the picture!
ReplyDeleteOH...big shoe, need a VERY big shoe for this one! Yikes.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great photo!
ReplyDeleteAnd your daughter sounds just like me. I would rather relocate anything than kill it, though I do grit my teeth and deal with those things that Must Be Dealt With. Only as a last resort though. :(
What is it about Gizzies? As individuals in their element they are not unattractive and I wouldn't harm one. But in The Cottage - they die! Actually because the Cottage is sprayed they do die very quickly. The problem can come with my habit of never wearing shoes indoors (people in Scotland find that rather quaint bordering on the eccentric I have found). It is not a pleasant creature to step on in bare feet!
ReplyDeleteAnd so ends another page of your fascinating blog. I don't know how many more there are to come. But not enough.
ReplyDeleteWe don'r wear shoes inside either. But brrrr, I've never stood on a cocky, thanks goodness. Son once put his foot inside a gumboot wherein was hiding a weta, 'though. The reaction was so vivid, we each remember it now as our own experience, and still shake out boots before entering them.
ReplyDelete