Fortunately the weather was pleasant today where I was able to get my early Saturday morning chores done which consisted of mowing and trimming the back of my office. There’s a healthy nest of wasps near one of the exterior walls which I’ve been wary of, but they’ve finally stopped flying around trying to chase me off since they’ve grown accustomed to me getting near them once a week. Wasps are usually not aggressive unless they happen to find themselves trapped somewhere they don’t want to be, or someone has come within inches of an incubating nest. When I was young I used to mow yards for some of the elderly. One of the homes had a clothesline in the rear yard that had open-ended cross bars which the lines attached to. Not realizing there was a large nest of wasps in one of those hollow pipes, I got too close and was anointed with several good stings on my head by one of its defenders. Not the most pleasant of experiences I can say, and since then, I’ve always been more careful to watch for more than one flying around an area. That almost always means there’s a nest nearby and caution to be taken. Painful memories are the ones quickly remembered.
My public open house at 912 – 11th St. NE was a success to where there were people in attendance nearly all the time. I was glad for it because it’s such a comfortable home I would have likely been fighting with myself to keep from dozing off had there been few. Every time I go down into the basement of that home, I’m wowed by its ceiling height. The rec room down there offers more of an opportunity to be used due to the basement being dry and the ceilings being high. Nobody likes being in finished basements that have low ceiling because there’s always some tall person going down and getting a head bump from either a low hanging beam or pipe. I mentioned to the buyers today how from the street side, it looks much smaller because people don’t realize there is a bump out of another room to the rear. Some lucky buyer is going to have a great home in an even greater neighborhood. I’ve sold many homes in that district and can’t remember anyone ever saying they didn’t like living there. A happenstance took place this afternoon which caused quite the jaw drop with me.
While walking out the front door of a home I went to look at which will be coming on the market soon, something caught my eye and I looked up. To my delight there was a dragonfly quietly hanging on the globe of an outside fixture. I showed the owner and told her I’d try to get a photo of it since I had my camera with me. I’ll wager it was one of the biggest I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve always liked them and have known for a very long time they neither sting nor bite and are predators to mosquitos and midges along with many other bothersome flying insects. I’ve read that in some cultures they’re associated with the Devil, while others consider them harbingers of good luck, and even others believing them to be shamanistic creatures possessing supernatural powers. Since they lay their eggs in fresh water, they’re also considered to be the litmus testers of water quality. The water quality in our area must be getting better because I’ve been seeing more of them flying around this summer.than ever. They’re not only beautiful, but a big help in keeping the mosquito populations down. Yes, the highlight of my day was getting the above photo of a perched dragonfly. It was probably taking its siesta from its morning insect feedings. I couldn’t tell if it was giving me one of those lurch-forward glamour smiles for the camera.
