1 EAGLETON NOTES: The Scottish Midge

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Monday 21 June 2010

The Scottish Midge

I blogged last year a bit earlier than this on Midges.  Inevitably when something plays such a significant part in a blogger’s life then it is only natural that there will be various blogs about it.  Today is absolutely perfect midge weather.  It’s warmer than it has been (17 deg c), absolutely calm, dull and overcast with an imperceptible drizzle.  This morning early on I could see the midges swarming outside the kitchen window.  Eventually I had to go out to put the bins out for collection and then go to Town.  By running all the time I actually seem to have avoided being bitten.  I compared that with a few days ago when I filled the bird feeders first thing in the morning wearing my dressing gown (= bare legs!) when in 45 seconds I was bitten 14 times.  The bird feeders need filling at the moment but…..

I would have tried to entertain you with a posting on little (2 mm long) critter but CJ (Scriptor Senex) did that in June 2008 when her was here in a posting entitled, informatively, The Highland Midge which appeared on his now-abandoned blog The Editorial.

One of the few humans to be exempt from attack by The Highland Midge is the lone piper who plays to entertain coachloads of tourists in various Highland beauty spots.  As one midge said “It’s not a good idea to drink the decoy.”

6 comments:

  1. I relented and filled the feeders. The Gods must have approved because I seem to have avoided being bitten despite wearing shorts.

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  2. Yup! The little beasties rantshembuined my gardening day too!

    However, it gave me the perfect excuse (why did I need one?) to watch the opening match at Wimbledon. Federa was given a real scare by Falla but won in the end. If the following matches are as good it will be a great two weeks.

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  3. I have just read my comment above!!!?! What I meant to say was "The little beasties ruined my gardening day too! Dont know where the word "rantshemhbuined" came from!!

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  4. ...Oh, I just got a good laugh at the comments from Spesh... (without the correction I might have thought that word was some kind of Gaelic slang!)

    Almost forgetting now what it was I was going to comment. Oh yes. Every time I hear your stories of the insect life at your dwelling- places (or anyone else's for that matter) I feel SO grateful to be living in town and away from blood-thirsty little things like that. Here I almost forget they exist. ;) Growing up though, I we had the forest behind our house. And at my grandparents' house too I remember the midges as a big nuisance on summer evenings.

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  5. When they were young, my children invented a name - they used to call them "Smidgeons". Because they were tiny.

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