Wednesday, August 24, 2011

What's that noise?



cicada flickr

























 

I have to admit, this isn't one of my prettiest paintings!  I've come to love these noisy little guys that emerge from the ground to fill my late summer days with all sorts of buzzing sounds.  As long as I can remember, I've always associated summer in Wisconsin with the buzz of the cicadas.  When I was a kid, I found the noise to be a little irritating, but now I've come to really appreciate it and look forward to it every year.  I always thought the cicadas made noise all through the summer, but upon moving back to Wisconsin a few years back, I realized that they don't start to emerge until late summer.   I think the cicadas that I'm used to are the annual or dog day cicadas, given this name because they emerge in late July and August.  Did you know that the cicada is the noisiest insect in the world and only the male makes the sounds?  I really look forward to hearing my first cicada in the summer.  This year Amelia and I heard it at the same time, it was the last week of July, and Amelia looks up at me very excitedly and says "cada mama, cada mama".  I love that she was so excited about it and that she actually remembered it from last year!  Along with crickets, cicadas are one of my favorite sounds of summer. 

2 comments:

Rita Maria Gallery said...

i too love the cicada buzz. reminds me of summer days when i was a little girl. by the way the wings on your cicada are beautiful!

Kathleen Conard said...

A great post! I grew up in the midwest and then lived in Oregon for the past 16 years - no cicadas in Oregon. One of my favorite things about my move last summer to Ohio is the sound of the cicadas. I knew I never felt completely at home in Oregon, and part of it was I missed the sounds of the midwest - cicadas being one of the most embedded in my soul it seems!

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