Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2023-06-13 09:08 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2023-06-13 09:08 am
The Pine Cones Are Having A Conference.
More adventures in Italy! Once again, I completely fail to talk about anything cultural and just get excited about wildlife.
I've spotted surprisingly few mammals in Italy other than, you know, humans; I haven't even seen livestock grazing in the fields. But there are bats flitting about in the evenings, and at one point I saw a red squirrel! I didn't know there were red squirrels in Italy! I've never seen one before.
Or possibly even a black squirrel? I recognised the profile and tufted ears as a red squirrel, but it looked black to me; I thought it was just the lighting, but apparently Italy does have black squirrels with a similar shape. Not sure they have them in Umbria, though.
And then a hare ran straight past me! I was sitting on a stone wall above a boules court, I heard the thump-thump of its feet, and as I looked up the hare tore straight across the court and vanished down a slope.
Saw a deep fountain that not only had fish swimming around in it; it had a little black turtle!
My brother Joseph and I saw what appeared to be a grasshopper but was far larger than any grasshopper I'd ever seen, and then it flew away, which was also rather ungrasshoppery behaviour. No idea what that was. Maybe a locust?
Got prickled by a prickly caterpillar that had made its way onto my sleeve without my noticing. Cute, but mildly concerning. I waited in excited suspense to see whether it resulted in any skin irritation, but I think I got away with it.
I saw a hoopoe! I caught a glimpse of a bird with a weird crest on its head and went '??? is that some sort of... wild Italian cockatoo?'; turns out it was a hoopoe! Very cool bird.
Discussing my inability to drive with my brother and sister-in-law:
Riona: I just don't trust myself to operate anything that could kill someone.
Eleanor: Joe, do you think we should return Riona's birthday present?
Joseph: What, the Stabber 3000?
Eleanor: Which I always thought was a strange name for a gun.
Joseph: Well, not a gun that shoots knives.
Joseph and I stood in the garden at dusk, watching the flashes of a distant thunderstorm light up the clouds in the darkening sky, while fireflies nearby were 'having a fucking disco', in Joseph's words. At one point a bat flew past my head, surprisingly close.
There was one patch of soil from which I kept hearing noises suggesting a living creature moving around, but I couldn't actually see anything there. At night, though, I heard the noises again and shone my phone torch on the soil, and I saw little beady eyes gleaming back at me from a well-camouflaged body; it was a toad!
I asked Joseph if he wanted to see it, and he said Eleanor would want to as well. Eleanor was reading in bed, but I went to ask her.
'Eleanor, do you want to see a great big toad behind the poolhouse?' I asked.
'Yes,' Eleanor said, almost before I'd finished speaking, scrambling out of bed.
I took Joseph and Eleanor to see the toad, and Eleanor cooed enthusiastically and lovingly over it. As I headed off for bed, I looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star, which I assume was the universe expressing how glad it was that I was able to show Eleanor the toad of her dreams.
I've spotted surprisingly few mammals in Italy other than, you know, humans; I haven't even seen livestock grazing in the fields. But there are bats flitting about in the evenings, and at one point I saw a red squirrel! I didn't know there were red squirrels in Italy! I've never seen one before.
Or possibly even a black squirrel? I recognised the profile and tufted ears as a red squirrel, but it looked black to me; I thought it was just the lighting, but apparently Italy does have black squirrels with a similar shape. Not sure they have them in Umbria, though.
And then a hare ran straight past me! I was sitting on a stone wall above a boules court, I heard the thump-thump of its feet, and as I looked up the hare tore straight across the court and vanished down a slope.
Saw a deep fountain that not only had fish swimming around in it; it had a little black turtle!
My brother Joseph and I saw what appeared to be a grasshopper but was far larger than any grasshopper I'd ever seen, and then it flew away, which was also rather ungrasshoppery behaviour. No idea what that was. Maybe a locust?
Got prickled by a prickly caterpillar that had made its way onto my sleeve without my noticing. Cute, but mildly concerning. I waited in excited suspense to see whether it resulted in any skin irritation, but I think I got away with it.
I saw a hoopoe! I caught a glimpse of a bird with a weird crest on its head and went '??? is that some sort of... wild Italian cockatoo?'; turns out it was a hoopoe! Very cool bird.
Discussing my inability to drive with my brother and sister-in-law:
Riona: I just don't trust myself to operate anything that could kill someone.
Eleanor: Joe, do you think we should return Riona's birthday present?
Joseph: What, the Stabber 3000?
Eleanor: Which I always thought was a strange name for a gun.
Joseph: Well, not a gun that shoots knives.
Joseph and I stood in the garden at dusk, watching the flashes of a distant thunderstorm light up the clouds in the darkening sky, while fireflies nearby were 'having a fucking disco', in Joseph's words. At one point a bat flew past my head, surprisingly close.
There was one patch of soil from which I kept hearing noises suggesting a living creature moving around, but I couldn't actually see anything there. At night, though, I heard the noises again and shone my phone torch on the soil, and I saw little beady eyes gleaming back at me from a well-camouflaged body; it was a toad!
I asked Joseph if he wanted to see it, and he said Eleanor would want to as well. Eleanor was reading in bed, but I went to ask her.
'Eleanor, do you want to see a great big toad behind the poolhouse?' I asked.
'Yes,' Eleanor said, almost before I'd finished speaking, scrambling out of bed.
I took Joseph and Eleanor to see the toad, and Eleanor cooed enthusiastically and lovingly over it. As I headed off for bed, I looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star, which I assume was the universe expressing how glad it was that I was able to show Eleanor the toad of her dreams.
no subject
I get really excited about red squirrels in Europe (I grew up with them but my local ones are gray or black and don’t have the tufted ears), getting to see bats and fireflies, and the one time we saw a hoopoe in the wild (in northern Israel). Your giant flying grasshopper does sound like the locusts we saw in Croatia - they were absolutely the highlight of my visit to some Roman ruins there, and the locals were very amused and like, you wanna take some home? XD
Also yay for Eleanor appreciating the toad you shared with her :D
no subject
they were absolutely the highlight of my visit to some Roman ruins there, and the locals were very amused and like, you wanna take some home?
Ha, I love this! I'm glad you were so delighted by the locusts.