Phew! Truce I think between the millipedes and us. Since the rainy day, the millipedes have invaded. They crawl out of the ground, in our doors, across our floors, up our walls, then they hit the ceiling, climb across the ceiling and start falling plop! plop! plop! onto desks, benches, every surface. Luckily, they're tiny. Unluckily, they're many. I get a bit paranoid about leaving any bowls, pots or cups without covering them. Yum millipede soup.. or how about millipede juice! One finds these millipedes everywhere, once even in a salad bowl I had covered with a teatowel. Made me a bit wary about my food for awhile.
Vacuuming and sweeping becomes an activity for a few times a day. A common sight is me picking up millipedes with a bit of tissue, then rinsing my fingers with a shiver. Not good for a city girl living in the country.
But today the hordes are dwindling to nothing. No more crunch underfoot.
Last night there were these loud taps on the door as I worked on the PC til early hours. I bore it for a while and then went to look out through the glass doors. I saw a moth as big as my hand! As I was going upstairs to bed, they were knocking on the living room door, and as I brushed my teeth, they knocked on the bathroom window. Bang! Thud! Crash! Was it one moth following me, or a gang terrorising me? I'd never seen them this big before. No sign of them tonight, must have been just passing through last night.
And the mice! At least 2 every night in the mouse traps. How did they suddenly find their way in! I think we've finished them off - the traps are silent tonight.
Mice, Moths, Millipedes. Funny how they're Ms at the moment. Other times they've been flies, beetles, spiders, snakes, foxes and, once a little bat who found its way into the house for a couple of nights. When I first saw it before bedtime, I thought it was a large moth (no..didn't like the light), then a bird (no..too silent and not bumping into windows) then unsure. It flew so fast I couldn't fix my eyes on it to see what it was. I finally got it into the bathroom, and closed the door on it and got Kurt to go have a look. When he looked, he saw a cute little bat sitting on the window ledge, staring at him with little bright eyes. The next morning it was gone. The door had been closed, and none of the windows were open. John next door told us that bats just disappear and reappear mysteriously. Next night, before bedtime, swoosh- a dark little shape swooping downstairs then upstairs, amongst the high ceilings and through the doorways. Our bat friend was back. Kurt woke up, and we sat up in bed waiting for the bat to fly into the room. It did, and finally settled beside a wood beam on the ceiling. I slid open the balcony door, and flyscreen, and settled back into bed. A little squeak from the bat, as if in thanks, and silently it swooped through the narrow opening of the door and was gone into the night. Just as I was asking Kurt whether people kept bats as pets.
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