Flymaggedan is winding down, I'm happy to report. The dead flies outnumber the living by a wide ratio this morning. The final step requires me to sweep and scrub the floor of the grotto outside my front door, something I'll do before I have the first shower today and will probably enjoy tremendously Then - sadly - I am told I must pour bleach down the drain. The poor Anacostia River will bear the brunt of this brutality. I wish there was some other way.
People say it's just a little bit of bleach. Some folks use bleach in their laundry regularly, hence the chemical is being poured into the river anyway. I didn't want to be one of those who poison the fish and befoul the water, but I'm going to do it. We do what we have to do, yes? I can't live with hundreds of flies. I won't. I have to put my foot down.
Later today I will visit the house of a client and friend who has just come home from having his hip replaced. An intense hour spent channeling Reiki should help soothe the pangs of guilt. I keep telling myself that I tread quite lightly on Mama Gaia, especially compared to many of my fellow Americans. But I hate having to pour bleach down the drain. Funny, I didn't mind spritzing my house with poison.
Also true: this is a summer of Great Discontent, a summer spent trudging through pudding, as Steven of the Golden Fish describes it. Hence I am discontented. OK. ok. Onwards and upwards, hail and farewell to the flies. Shalom.
13 comments:
It is done. The grotto smells slightly bleachy but the energy is SO MUCH better than before I swept under the wood thingie that serves as a front porch. I bet I swept up 15 to 20 pounds of dirt, old leaves, fuzzy stuff I couldn't identify, and dead bugs. The day of the fly is done. So be it!
You don't need to feel bad about the bleach--it's very reactive stuff, so as it goes down the drain, it reacts with organic materials (like flies and bacteria and other things in sewage) and becomes inert, safe stuff before it gets to the fish. In an emergency situation (like a flood or natural disaster) you can use household bleach to kill microorganisms in drinking water.
This is the season when the hornets and wasps try to move in with us. It's always something, isn't it?
Rebecca THANK YOU! Thank you. I'm sure I do a million things that are bad for the environment. I was feeling particularly awful because I love the rivers so much. Thank goodness for your expertise.
Yes, wild nature is incredible - relentless, as it should be I suppose. How do you deal with the wasps and hornets? They seem angry to me. Surely that is not true.
I'm glad you beat the flies and I hope you don't have to deal with wasps. They can get very ornery towards the end of the summer.
And that first photo is beaYOUtiful!
I have a few days out of the year that I call my 'I'm not saving the earth today' days. Days when I throw away things that can be recycled or do other things that I don't ordinarily do, usually in a frenzy of clearing out the abode.
I like that, Ellen. Today is an "I'm not saving the Earth" day. Definitely.
It sure feels better out in the grotto, with all that dirt under the "porch" swept up. The smell of bleach is fading. I think I did the right thing.
I read (in fiction; can't remember where) that only weak-minded people are influenced by the weather . . . but I just can't believe this is true! If we are connected to the earth, and we certainly are, then we are going to be uplifted (and dragged down) by the meteoric changes. Yes, you are in the pudding/the swamp right now. Unfortunately, some of the peskier living creatures also thrive there. Here's to fresher air blowing your way! xx
Adios flies!!!
They're history!
Your photo is as usual AMAZING!
I love pudding! I would like to slog through an entire season of pudding- preferably butterscotch or lemon, please.
Linda Sue - ha!
Love the view through the leaves, such energy, such life....
I don't envy you those flies Reya- glad they're history!
With others,I rented an isolated farm house in my twenties - sheep everywhere in a stinking hot climate- they attract flies and we were forever spraying and removing them from the windowsills - and setting rat traps!
My house-mates (one a science teacher who had no trouble disposing of the rats)and I also endured a mouse plague for months. It covered nearly all of rural South Australia and destoyed all the grain crops.The poison and mouse ingestion wiped out many of the birds.
I am looking forward to a brand new month and your take on the cosmic dance August may be inviting us to participate in. We never know quite where it will take us do we!
Thank you so much for your kind thoughts recently.
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