Photo Post: Tomato vs Mushroom and the harbinger of death
In case you haven’t worked it out, ‘Photo Post’ is my way of saying “I haven’t really prepared a long narrative, but here are a couple of pictures that you may (or may not!) find interesting”. Today I’m going to show you a couple of curiosities that both appeared very suddenly in the last 24 hours.
I planted some tomato seeds a few weeks ago and was very happy to see a nice healthy seedling appear:
This was yesterday. My healthy, happy tomato seedling sits contentedly in a pot of its own.
It has rained a lot over the last month and everything is kind of damp and soggy. Today I woke up to find that my tomato plant has some competition!
Visitor number 2 arrived late last night when it flew in threw our bedroom window. This enormous flying beast had a 6 inch (15 cm) wingspan and looked like a bat as it flew around our room in the dark. I would like to tell you that I kept my composure, but in reality I lost it completely and hid under the sheets!
Once our visitor had landed and settled down, we turned on the lights and had a look. Turns out it wasn’t a bat, but instead the creepily named Black Witch Moth. Wikipedia tells me that this moth is also found all over Latin America and is known in many countries as bad luck and even a harbinger of death.
In Mexico and Costa Rica they call this “Mariposa de la muerte” (Butterfly of death).
I only just found out that our huge moth visitor was such bad luck. Can anyone think of a positive spin I can put on this?
Finally, with just a few more days until carnival starts, I’m hoping for one more unexpected visitor soon – o sol!
Those are bad luck? Seriously? Good grief, we see them all the time at our farm… The good news is that my husband tells me that grasshoppers are good luck in Brazil. We see them an equal amount of times (maybe more?) as we do the moths. Hopefully that balances us out!
Sounds like you have a well balanced farm karma :)
“I would like to tell you that I kept my composure, but in reality I lost it completely and hid under the sheets!”
Someone is omitting the phrase “shrieked like a little girl” from the narrative above.
Ha ha ha! Guilty as charged! ;)
Moving on from Tomato vs Mushroom what do you have to say about Marmite vs Feijoada?
Something tells me shrieking also took place here :-)
Marmite wins! :D I never doubted them for a minute….
Forget dengue, THIS is the reason I put nets on all my windows. *shudder*
Make sure you get properly reinforced nets GFE – when I was catching the moth to put it out of the window, I put an empty ice-cream tub over the top of it. The moth pushed it around the floor as it tried to escape!
OMGOMGOMGOMOMGOGM
ME TOO
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…
……….
….Have you seen my posts about these things?
I have a whole section of my blog dedicated to my intense phobia of these giant moths.
Words cannot describe my fear, but tears can do it justice. I am very disturbed that you got one in your apartment in such a big city!!! I had been taking comfort in the thought that I wouldn’t encounter them at home anymore now that I live in a more urban area. Nooooooo
Ha ha! Oh dear – sorry to be the bearer of such fearful news Danielle. Your reaction sounds very like mine the first time I saw a cockroach fly in through our open window. After screaming and having Mrs Eat Rio dispose of our unwelcome guest, I just sat there shuddering and mumbling “This changes everything… We have to keep all windows closed….forever!” ;)
OMG, “Mariposa de la Muerte”!!!!! This is way too funny! You are killing me Tom! LOL
Loved your salad in a pot by the way!! Did those mushrooms popped up naturally like that? Did you plant them? Sorry if this is a stupid question. I just love mushrooms and got really excited with the possibility of having them grow up naturally like that… ;)
Abracos
Ray
The mushrooms just popped up! I think it is because we’ve had rain every day for the last 4 weeks. Everything is warm and soggy – perfect conditions for mushrooms apparently!