Lovely Awkward: A Year of Wine, Romance and Life Among the French

Lovely Awkward: A Year of Wine, Romance and Life Among the French

Friday 25 March 2011

An unwanted visitor

Yesterday, we noticed that a new guest had moved into our terracotta mandarin tree pot. That was the first sighting.



But just now, I went into the kitchen to make some tea and discovered him with his legs and arms open wide, straddling two branches of our mandarin tree. He then started hugging one of the branches and slowly slinking his way up toward the leaves.

I've decided he's either going to fall in love with our mandarin tree (he looks sort of like one of the branches) or he's going to eat it. And I'm scared. And his Jaws-like tyranny is distracting me from my writing. This year, we were only left with three mandarins because some little bugs or pests or whatever destroyed the rest when they were just little babies. So, I'm wary of this new stick man's intentions. I don't trust him. He's shifty.



Any thoughts on getting rid of him? Or am I just being mean to a poor little homeless grasshopper? (He's looking right at me in this next photo. Well, I think he is. I also think he's showing his mandibles.)



Here's my only solution: The other day, I started doing some illustrations for a kids' book out on the terrace, near where this grasshopper is now skulking. I sat for an hour or so, drawing a guinea pig and in the end, I thought I'd done a good job. Except for the fact that the guinea pig was accidentally evil. Or angry. Or just nonplussed. I'm more of a grown-up drawer normally; I guess I'm not used to drawing goofy kid-appropriate faces. This one won't be on the cover of the book, at least.

What I'm wondering is: Do accidentally evil guinea pig illustrations make good scarecrows? Pig in pot = no more Rear Window?

8 comments:

  1. The unwanted visitor looks so gross and scary! Get rid of him! Put up the illustrations - I'm sure they'll make excellent scarecrows! =)

    Carmen

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  2. AWww! I think that he actually looks cute! Way better than the big dirty cockroaches here in HOng Kong!

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  3. Haha. Cockroaches... Yikes!

    I like him, as I like all animals or bugs. I just don't like if they try to eat me or my plants!

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  4. Oneika: Funny you mentioned cockroaches...I grew up in Hong Kong and saw so many of them but I agree with you - they're way worse than the grasshopper.

    Carmen

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  5. I usually don't like insects but the macro makes it look non-threatening for some reason. It looks like it's hugging the tree! Like a mini koala. Less furry though.

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  6. Zhu: Exactly! Hugging... for sure. Fur-free koala... maybe... haha.

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  7. Yeah, I was pushing it a bit. I have a cold and I'm on Tylenol, probably made me over-enthusiastic :lol:

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  8. Zhu: No, he's cute. But he's also... gone! He moved out on his own.

    I hope your Ottawa cold goes away soon...

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