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Tuesday 12 May 2015

Daily Prompt: Housework and love in the tulip

What’s the household task you most dislike doing? Why do you think that is — is it the task itself, or something more?

Read all about it Those Dishes won't do themselves unfortunately. Actually the job I hate most is cleaning the bathroom. I did it this morning as it was Tuesday and on Tuesday morning I clean the bathroom. Not just a tickle in the bath and sink, but the whole McCoy including wall tiles and floor. I hate the job and even being tall does not make it easier: backache is backache. However, being woman, I have a built in bathroom cleaning intuition and according to my time table it takes about 45 minutes all included. If I did the job once a month it would take longer and I do not like long jobs.


And now for something completely different.


Rose chafer in tulip

Yesterday I had a visitor in the garden as I was sitting on the porch outside writing my fantastic prize suspicious blog. I told you all about it. Fred the Rose bug flew into one of my mother’s days tulips. First of all he did an inspection tour and then decided that this was the right tulip. Actually it seems he was looking for Mavis, his partner for the year. She had arrived half an hour earlier and was busy doing things that female bugs do already in this tulip. If you look very carefully you can see the edge of her body on the bottom petal on the right.


Rose Chafer inside tulip

Of course there was a reunion ceremony. Mavis decided to stop playing hide and seek with Fred and moved to show herself in her full beauty.

“Mavis at last, I was searching for you everywhere, but then I sniffed that well known scent and saw you hiding in the tulip.”

“Even a female bug has to have a private sphere sometimes Fred. We are only now getting to know each other. I was just thinking how nice it would be to share a tulip with you and there you are.”

“So let’s do it.”

“Do what Fred?”

“What Rose bugs do in Spring.”

“Not so fast Fred. We only met yesterday. I am not one of those bugs you just pick up by chance. There are certain rules and one is “do not fly with every bug you happen to meet.”

“Come on Mavis, we are made for each other. Let’s have a cuddle.”


Two Rose Chafer in a tulip

“Oh Fred, you do have sexy legs, stop tickling. I have never met a bug like you before.”

I decided to leave the two of them alone, after all every bug has a right to its own private sphere. It seems that they are rose bugs, but at the moment there are no roses because the roses have only now begun to grow. In the meanwhile they feed on pollen and nectar from any flowers they find. When the roses appear then beware, they have a particular taste for the buds.

“It’s my first Spring Mavis, so I am a bit of a beginner.”

“I don’t think so Fred, you seem to know what to do.”


And so Fred and Mavis spent their honeymoon in a tulip on the table on my porch. After some time Fred decided to get some fresh air, so he crawled out of the tulip, tired but happy. Yes” he thought “life as a rose bug is fun.”


Rose chafer leaving tulip

After a while Mavis realised she would become a mother and carefully deposited her eggs in the earth, ensuring that they would have enough rotting leaf material to digest so that they would grow big and strong like Fred. Unfortunately Mavis would not survive to see the firm wrinkled bodies of her babies with their small heads and legs. It was the fate of Mavis to die after giving birth, so is the life of a female rose bug.

5 comments:

  1. Aww poor Mavis! Great pics.

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    1. Yes so is the life of a bug it seems. Only the men survive.

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  2. I bet Fred was relieved not to be a mantis, because Mavis would have bitten his head off. Or a spider, in which case Mavis may just have killed him after the 'fun' !!

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    1. Great photos, by the way, particularly the last one!!

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    2. We sometime have zebra spiders. You can hardly see the male, he is so small and in any case it is only the female that survives after they have had their fun. She eats the male. They were still buzzing aroud today, so their might be the chance of more photos before Mavis commits suicide or whatever

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