'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

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Thursday, 26 May 2011

Rose and Weevil.

No, not the name of a be-beamed and be-horse brassed Olde English Pub. Just something I found in my garden. The last rose ('Graham Thomas' if you are interested in such details) of autumn, wafted its heavenly scent towards my nose. As I bent down to partake in its fragrant delights I noticed it was being vigorously munched upon by a single weevil.

This is one of the broad-nosed weevils. It chewed away with a slightly self-concious air while I took these photos. As I've mentioned before, I rather like weevils. They have an ungainly look to them, and their big noses make them appear diffident and unassuming. Of course that's falling into that homo-centric trap of anthropomorphising. In fact weevils are the largest animal family in the world, (about half of all the beetles), and many of them eat a great deal of the food we consider 'ours'.


In the end she became nervous of me and hid, but peeked out occasionally to see if I'd gone yet.


5 comments:

  1. I suggest you add this sentence at the end of your post:

    In the end, I could see no weevil.

    (I'm kidding! A lovely post, Kate.)

    Verification word is dessess. I will cease and dessess.

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  2. I love the idea of a pub called The Rose and Weevil. Mind you The Rose and Beetle doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

    I admit, too, to a liking for weevils. There is something pleasing to me about their shape and aspect although I have no idea why and there is no logic to it because, whilst I enjoy watching and photographing insects in general, I'm not overly fond of beetles in particular. So perhaps I, too, fall into the anthropomorphic trap. As a would-be vegetarian perhaps I identify with them subconsciously. Who knows?

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  3. I love this post; especially the weevil peeking out at you. She is rather lovely. Yellow roses are my favorite!

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  4. Robert - a perfect ending. Except I could see weevil. Just nit-picking ha ha.

    Geeb - Yes, then we could say 'Meet you down at the "Rose and Weevil", or perhaps it would be shortened just to "The Weevil". I wonder what the meals would be like. They'd surely serve fried Mopane worms (Gonimbrasia belina) to eat with your beer.

    Lizzy - this yellow rose has such a wonderful scent. The other scented rose I love is "Sutter's Gold". But unfortunately it doesn't do so well in the combination of this (warm, moist) climate, and my benign neglect.

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  5. Actually I had no idea that the Mopane worm was a hawk moth larva. Not at the top of my gastronomic must-eats I have to say.

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