Today I Went to the Ladybug Channel (Photos) Ladybug Lore

Sunday, while up in the pile of rocks and woods called the Okinawa Quasi-National Park, I shot a few Ladybug photos.

So, today I decided to do a little research on the critters. "Ladybug, ladybug, where you been" (Author Unknown) kept popping into my head. It's probably something my mother just made up when we were kids driving her crazy. 

I'll give her credit.  Now, the tune is driving me crazy.  So, we're even, I guess.


The most information-packed site I came up with, gave me these scientific names: Coleoptera and Coccinellidae.

After I learned that North America has about 400 different kinds of Ladybugs and there's close to 5,000 breeds of the species around the world, I decided, just plain old "Ladybug" is good enough for me.

Being a recovering farmer, I always knew Ladybugs were good for gardens. Some people who are too lazy to catch their own actually buy the things.  Did you know that ?

Here'a a few things I learned while looking at the Ladybug Channel:

If you eat them, they don't taste good.

They hibernate in the winter.

When the weather warms up and they wake up they spend a few days eating and doing frenzied mating.

The females must believe in multi-tasking. They can be breeding and eating at the same time.

If a man and woman in Norway see a Ladybug at the same time they will have romance.

Victorians in England thought if a Ladybug landed on your head you'd get a new hat.

Most cultures believe a Ladybug brings good luck and if you kill one, bad luck.

Some Asians believe Ladybugs understand what people are saying.

Some folks believe the spots on a Ladybug's wings mean a good harvest if they have less than seven, famine, if more.

A Ladybug crawling across a girl's hand in Belgium means she'll be married within a year.

In Brussels someone holding a Ladybug will count the black dots to figure out how many children they'll have.

Dentists used to crush Ladybugs and stuff them in your tooth to fix a toothache back in the 1800's.

The Ladybug Channel isn't video or anything like that.  It's just text you read but, you could spend an hour there, easily.  And there's no commercials to interrupt you.  Check it out sometime.

All you ever wanted to know about Ladybugs and more can be found RIGHT HERE AT LADYBUG LORE

Visit my Website for THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Congratulations You Won ! (Photo) This Is Not A Scam !

Let's get the word out.  Let's find and congratulate Mr Raymond R. Ebner, pictured in the photo above.

This is not a contest or a scam.  The guy could be 90 or 91 years old by now. 

Somebody brought me some family treasures of his. 

I got them, right here, in Okinawa, Japan.

He, or his family heirs will want this stuff.  I don't have time to fool with governments or lawyers.

So, somebody better contact me through my website.  I ain't giving this stuff to some foreign prince or anthing like that.  This is the real deal.  Mr Raymond Ebner or his kinfolk, only.

Anybody else tries contacting me, hungry wolves may chase you down like the vermin you are.


VISIT MY WEBSITE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Sunday's Silly Sign (Photo) May 15, 2011: Return A Road

Could be they've had some sort of road rustlers up in the mountains.

You know, scoundrels who come and steal your highways in the middle of the night.

No questions asked. We'll give you amnesty. Just come clean and return a road here.

This sign is located just outside Okinawa's Quasi-National Park.

It's way up north in the mountains about as far as you can go on this island.

The sign, I think, was put there to tell city slickers how to get down off the mountain.

See, if you don't take the road that returns, living on an island, and all, you could go the wrong way.

You could wind up goin' around and around the island and keep coming back to the same place over and over again.

People who live in the country don't need silly signs telling them how to get off the mountain.

We just follow any road until we see the ocean.

Then, we turn left, or right.  It all depends on if we want to get farther or closer to home.

Shucks.   Look real close at the photo of this silly sign.

It looks like it used to have an arrow pointing both ways and somebody taped-over one end !

Maybe, next time I go up there I'll fix their sign for free.

Pull the green tape off and cover the "A" so it wouldn't be a silly sign anymore.

We could have arrows pointing both ways.

Then city people will be driving around and around the island acting like they're lost again !

Photo: And You Thought You Had A Bad Day

Photo: Fish on ice at Tomari Port Okinawa, Japan

Anytime you think you've had a bad day all you have to do is look around and you'll find someone who has had more of a bad day than you.

Visit my Homepage for THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Flower Photo: Purple Shamrocks in the Rain and A Mini-Typhoon

Here's a photo of the Purple Shamrocks in my front yard.  They're taking a beating today as we experience our first typhoon of the season.  Not to worry, these guys are tough and this is what I consider to be a mini-typhoon. We're getting a nice breeze and sideways-blowing rain.  It doesn't stick to you much.

We haven't had a really good telephone pole-busting typhoon around here in the past ten years.  So, our number may come up anytime, now.  We used to call Okinawa, Typhoon Alley because back in the days when we had no building codes, the typhoons knew it.  And they'd gang up, build strength and blow stuff down all over the island.  It seems like the past few years China, Taiwan, and the Philippines have been getting the worst of the storms.  We're lucky in Okinawa.  We have shamrocks.  Hah!

These Purple Shamrocks, I'm going to stick my neck way out and call them Oxalis regnellii atropurpea because I found some that look like mine at PLANT OF THE WEEK dot ORG.

If you do a search on shamrocks, you can find enough information to get the Pope, St. Patrick, all the Presidents in South America and some of the ugly women in the British Royal Family, along with a few drunk Irishmen into the biggest brawl of the Century.  I'd like to be a part of that!

Some sites will tell you shamrocks came from South America.  Others will tell you shamrocks, like ospreys, are on every continent except Antarctica. 

The Trades Mark Act of 1996 restricts the use of the Shamrock Emblem to goods or services from Ireland.  So, Ireland has this dude called The Minister of Trade, Enterprise, and Initiative who can say "Yay or Nay" if you want to use his logo.  CHECK IT OUT HERE.

If you ask the people living in Ireland to bring you some shamrocks, they show up with about five different kinds of plants.  That's because nobody really knows what a shamrock is supposed to be!




A guy walks out of the bar and sits down on the steps. He wants the mini-typhoon to blow away, rain to stop and the sun to start shining again.  He says his plants are Purple Shamrocks and he has a picture to prove it.  Don't matter if yer the Minister of Trade or Queen of England.  You wanna argue with me?

 About Purple Shamrocks