Entries tagged with cicadas

Current Mood: content
Crossposts: http://lin4gondor.livejournal.com/288751.html

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Cicadas

The first cicadas of the year are making their music outside my window this evening. I am content! In honor of the occasion, here's a short fixed length fic I wrote a couple of years ago, featuring cicadas:

Sounds of Home

Boromir sat under a tree, legs stretched out before him. Weary after long hours of trudging under the hot summer sun, the shade provided him welcome respite.

The resonant buzzing of cicadas filled the air, first growing loud, then ebbing away to begin again from another place. One strident fellow claimed the branches above Boromir’s head for his own, his drumming music bold and insistent.

Boromir smiled, pleased at the sound and filled with contentment. This song was common throughout Gondor, from the trees of his City to the fields and woods approaching the Sea.

He was far from home, but the sounds of home were with him, even here.

Current Mood: happy

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Sounds of Home

This is a tale I wrote for a fixed-length challenge at

lotr_community. Enjoy!

Author: Linaewen
Title: Sounds of Home
Rating: G
Theme: Short and Sweet
Elements: Write a fixed-length ficlet of exactly 110 words
Author's Notes: This plot bunny placed second in my poll for the 2010 Finish-a-thon, and it has now been finished after laying dormant for more than a year -- rather like a cicada, come to think of it!
Summary: Boromir is serenaded as he takes a mid-afternoon rest.
Word Count: 110

Boromir sat under a tree, legs stretched out before him. Weary after long hours of trudging under the hot summer sun, the shade provided him welcome respite.

The resonant buzzing of cicadas filled the air, first growing loud, then ebbing away to begin again from another place. One strident fellow claimed the branches above Boromir’s head for his own, his drumming music bold and insistent.

Boromir smiled, pleased at the sound and filled with contentment. This song was common throughout Gondor, from the trees of his City to the fields and woods approaching the Sea.

He was far from home, but the sounds of home were with him, even here.

Current Mood: creative

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Finish-a-thon 2010

I recently signed up for what is known as a Finish-a-thon -- the goal of which is to help a writer finish one of those long-neglected blot bunnies or already begun tales that are kicking around the place.

It is set up as a LiveJournal poll, and that means any of you who wish to can vote, to help me decide which of my stories gets finished -- or at least worked on to the point of 10,000 more words written, in the case of an impossibly long epic that could in no way be finished by the deadline! ;-)

I have proposed the following tales as candidates for finishing -- two are multiple chapter works, and two are plot bunnies that I WILL write, but it looks like I need help in getting them started. They are all in the LotR fandom:

( Click here for Lin's stalled fics )

And my poll is here, so please go vote and help me choose which one to concentrate on this summer! I think the polls are open until Friday, so don't hesitate, go vote! :-D

HERE

I'm feeling quite stirred to finish all of them at this point, so the Finish-a-thon is already having a good effect!!

Current Mood: ecstatic

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cicadas

Cicadas = Summer at Last!!

We have yet to have a 90 degree day here in the Midwest, but even so, it is now fully summer in my opinion. It has little to do with the date on the calendar or the temperature outside (or inside, for that matter) -- and has everything to do with cicadas.

I heard my first cicada song of the year this evening as I was out walking with my DH, and it made me cheer out loud! I am such a fan of those fascinating bugs, and I have been waiting and waiting to hear them singing this year. Two years ago I had the honor of living in an area that was besieged by the 17 year locust -- what a loud and lengthy summer that was, but I loved it. Last year, too, was a lovely year for cicadas, as there were some residual 17 year locusts who hung around from June until October, one of which stayed right outside our apartment window and sang to me all day long and into the evening! I guess we just have the normal cicadas this year, which are getting started later in the game -- but I shall hope that they stick around into October as well. Their season is far too short for my tastes.

I think I need an "I <3 Cicadas" bumper sticker or something. ;-)

Current Mood: very itchy

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cicadas

My weekend, good and bad

I had a lovely time this weekend, which I already mentioned in part in my last post -- a gorgeous day canoeing with friends from church and picnicing afterwards.

The really neat part of the weekend happened yesterday, when DH and I went for a walk in our local arboretum (which is just woods with various trails in it, nothing fancy) and we saw 17-year cicadas! I've never seen those special ones, but I had heard they might be seen this year in our area. I adore cicadas, always have, and I have been very keen to see the 17-year ones, but have never managed it. But sure enough, they are in this area and we discovered them at the far end of one of the trails where it came out of the woods and passed along the edge of a more open meadow. They were all over the place, but not making much noise; we think they were only recently "hatched" and hadn't got all their wits about them just yet. Which was too bad, because the birds were really having a feast while the cicadas sat there soaking in the rays. There were many more than we even saw, a big group off in the woods, making quite a bit of noise, but it was a nice sound. It sounded more like tree frogs than cicadas. We plan go back to the place in a few days and see if the noise level is any louder. ;-)

The bad part of the weekend is that I did get a sunburn in spite of all my precautions, and it is slowly driving me mad. ;-) It's more like an allergic reaction than a sunburn, and the itching is fierce. I know what to do for it, since I had this problem last year, and my remedies will eventually help -- but in the meantime, I'm feeling pretty puny and trying not to bite people's heads off because I am miserable. I am most thankful that I have had some periods of relief from the itching today, and I am praying for more!

I don't want to end this post on a sour note, so I'll add a picture of a 17 year cicada. I think they are beautiful, though I know there are some out there who might disagree, lol!

Current Mood: working

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cicadas

Busy being busy

It's one of those office days where I just have to sit here and deal with things as they come, and in between plug away at the tasks I have assigned myself to do today. Not a bad day, actually, as long as I don't worry about being interrupted, or look ahead to the rest of what is looming on the horizon that needs accomplishing. I'm only looking at the short list today, and that will be enough.

I successfully manned the mysterious and frightening phone switchboard today at the office, during breaktime -- once I am past doing it over lunch break I will be home free for another 6 weeks. Wheeee! I'm not a big fan of phones, I prefer to do business face to face, or in writing. ;-)

As I walked to work this morning, I was surrounded by the pleasant, pulsing buzz of cicadas -- I do enjoy hearing them! In honor of that enjoyable moment, I am reposting the poem I shared a couple of weeks back about cicadas:

We know that you are royally blest,
Cicada, when among the tree-tops,
You sip some dew and sing your song;
For every single thing is yours
That you survey among the fields
And all the things the woods produce.
The farmers' constant company,
You damage nothing that is theirs;
Esteemed you are by every human
As the summer's sweet-voiced prophet.
The Muses love you, and Apollo too,
Who's gifted you with high pitched song.
Old age does nothing that can wear you,
Earth's sage and song-enamored son;
You suffer not, being flesh-and-blood-less--
A god-like creature, virtually.
-- from an ancient Greek poem

Current Mood: content

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cicadas

Cicadas and other matters

I went for a walk in the cemetery on Saturday. It was lovely! A sweet time of thinking quiet thoughts, enjoying the smell of hot sun on green grass, feeling the cool breeze on my face, and listening to the sound of birds -- and cicadas.

I heard cicadas for the first time this season and that made me happy. I do love to hear them "singing" though I'm not sure why. It is just a nostalgic, peaceful sound for me.

I went looking for a poem about cicadas and found this, a translation of an ancient Greek poem. I've included the link to the site where I found it as an acknowlegement but also as a link to a fascinating and scholarly treatise on cicadas in ancient Greece.

We know that you are royally blest
Cicada when, among the tree-tops,
You sip some dew and sing your song;
For every single thing is yours
That you survey among the fields
And all the things the woods produce.
The farmers' constant company,
You damage nothing that is theirs;
Esteemed you are by every human
As the summer's sweet-voiced prophet.
The Muses love you, and Apollo too,
Who's gifted you with high pitched song.
Old age does nothing that can wear you,
Earth's sage and song-enamored son;
You suffer not, being flesh-and-blood-less--
A god-like creature, virtually.

Cicada in Ancient Greece

In other news, totally unrelated to cicadas, I am expecting 9 guests today who will spend four nights here, with an additional 4 who are staying elsewhere but eating with us several nights this week. Guess I'd better get cracking on some of the things I have to do to be ready for that!

But before I go, a taste of what we have to look forward to in the upcoming film The Island...

( Dr. Merrick )