New Collage, The Nature of Things
The Nature of Things – Collage, 5×5″
Every day of my life is a lesson about the nature of things. Bugs and other small creatures, weeds, the ability to grow food right out of the ground, the predictability of compost. If you stir the compost pile, it will reward you with rich black soil. If you spend time walking in the woods in the summer, you might have to do a tick check when you get home. If you allow your garden to be populated with all kinds of insects, the beneficial ones will be your friend. If you spray poisons, you will disrupt that balance.
That last part sounds good in theory. In the real world, God help you if you are invaded with flea beetles or Japanese beetles. Both are rampant in our area. I have ended up being forced to do a light spraying of pyrethrins for flea beetles. They have eaten a million little holes in my eggplant leaves. I’m told by a local small-scale farmer that if I want to be rid of the pesky little devils, I will have to take up the dirt from the affected beds and burn it.
In the meantime, I pray that the little bit of spray will not kill a single bumblebee or beneficial wasp or praying mantis or ladybug.
Another sad lesson in the nature of things.
An Artist's Journal 
Your collage is interesting…so inspiring to see and I wish i could hold it in and look closely. I had Lyme’s disease back in 1986 and 1987 and it took a major toll on my heart. PEACE, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
Mary Helen, I know Lyme disease can be devastating. I’m so sorry you’ve had long term effects from it. I’m not fearful of most creepy crawlies, but there’s just something about ticks that make my skin crawl. I think knowing the diseases they carry is the reason.
That collage came from just scraps. I wanted to pick up a few from my pile on the table and make a simple collage. The newspaper fragment with orange and yellow paint is a piece that I must have used at one time to clean excess paint off a roller. The piece of red with white blotches down in the corner is part of an acrylic painted piece of heavy art paper that sat buried under leaves and pine needles, and the white that is adhered to it was another piece of paper that I couldn’t get completely off when I separated them. And the black painted piece in the upper right hand corner came from my freezer paper table cover!
It’s so hard to keep a balance in the garden, but you seem to find it easy with a collage.
Thanks Sassa! Yes so true about the garden. Sometimes we just aren’t in control of everything.
A note about ticks. If you pull them out without making them let go, they will leave part of their body behind. I usually take a small plastic cup (like off the hair spray or smaller) fill it with fresh ammonia and drown it before I remove it. This can save a lot of itching and infection. Also, ammonia works excellent to kill chiggers and the itching.
We had a very bad infestation of flying Japanese beetles last year, used pyrethrine, this year we are better, and had to use very little. Be sure to spray this winter when things are dormant.
What a great tip for ticks, Caroline – thanks! I’ve also learned one more thing about Japanese beetle control. We probably will get them in just a matter of time. I’m told by some friends who have had experience with them that you do have to use the pyrethrins to knock them out for the first season, but then after that use milky spore disease powder to eradicate them. They also told me that it’s better if the whole neighborhood uses it, because they do migrate from one garden/field/lawn to another.