They have arrived—-the much anticipated Canadian Soldiers/Mayflies/June Bugs! They were covering the cars this morning when I went out for an early morning walk. You may ask why I still love to come to Lakeside when these creatures normally arrive during our week here—well–it is part of the charm. I mean really—-what is more charming than taking an early morning walk and hearing the crunch crunch under your feet as you tred down the street. And I haven’t even begun to mention the wonderful odor that is part of the entire experience. The lightposts are covered and look furry and as they fall off they accumulate in huge piles which begin to smell very odiforous as they decay. On the dock one of the duties of the lifeguards is to hose the place down in the morning, thus ridding the dock of the nasty creatures for a minute before more hatch out and start landing. Eating ice cream is an experience in itself—sometimes your Buckeye Bites end up with Mayfly Bites right along with it. Gross—yes—but one does the best he/she can and perserveres to insure that the experience is pleasurable!

So as they have begun to arrive and swarm on cars, light poles, houses and park benches you grin and bear it and laugh at the reactions of those who have never had the pleasure of experiencing the critters and are thankful that they are only here for a short time. And also thankful that they are a sign that Lake Erie is healthy once again –healthy enough for them to be here!!! A good sign in our times of environmental concern that at least one thing is going in the right direction!