Visitors

It is that time of year again. Firefly season! We look forward to it every year it is the marker that it is almost Summer. If you are sitting in your chair in front of this screen thinking to yourself " I didn't actually know they were a real life thing" you are not alone. Until I moved here , 10 years ago, I thought they were just a thing from books.

I had a book about them as a child, called Sam and The Firefly- which I have been trying to think of the name of for ages (and google just helped my find, and Dymoks and Amazon both have - I just bought a copy!!) I loved it? Do you know it? But I always thought they were a mythical creature, I really really did. I grew up in the city ok?

 Remember:

When I moved here and a group of us were sitting inside and someone came back from outside and said "the fireflies are out." I just kind of laughed . We all went to look, me feeling like everyone was in on some joke and not wanting to sound like such a naive just-moved-up-from - the -city- type- which I was!

Then I saw one. Then another. And another, then I held out my hand and one landed on it. It was one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me. Not only were they real, one landed on my hand! Almost saying See! I am real.




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Do you know why they glow?

This is why: "The male firefly flashes its light for a very important purpose. It wants to find a mate. When it gets dark, the male firefly flies through the night. It flashes its light like a signal. Each kind of firefly has its own signal.

The female firefly has short wings and often can’t fly. It perches itself on a bush or a rock and waits. When a male passes by with a signal the female recognizes, the female flashes back the same signal. The male lands and touches the female’s antennae. This is how fireflies smell each other. If the female smells right to him, the two fireflies will mate. Later the female lays her eggs." From here.

Busy is into them big time! We catch them in a jar and look at them flying around , she takes them into her room and goes under her bed and watches them in the dark.

Do you read Sam and the Firefly as a child?
Did you not know they actually existed in real life?