Flies. It had to be black flies.

About a week ago the temperatures started to warm up...seriously warm up. At the Bolt Hole things got up in to the 80s which is well above normal for April. It got so warm that there were thunderstorms two nights while I was there and the black flies started to appear on Sunday.

At the Aerie the temperatures followed suit. It got into the upper 80s last Thursday and Friday and then into the 90s on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I came home Monday to put the window AC unit into the bedroom. (So, of course, the temperature dropped like a stone in a deep, deep well on Tuesday afternoon. It never got above 72 degrees but fell so fast that you could watch the digital thermometer report the temperature. In one hour it dropped 10 degrees and by 8 PM it was pushing its way south of 50 degrees. Every time the outdoor sensor send data to the indoor base, that temperature was down, down, down. Even though it read 36 degrees this morning (Wednesday) at 7 AM there was ice on the deck. Yeah, ICE! It did warm up some during a beautiful, near perfect day and reached 68 degrees this afternoon. Things seem to be back to normal on the old thermostat.

I said it was a "near perfect day" above. Why "near" and not "perfect", you may ask? Remember the black flies I mentioned that appeared at the Bolt Hole? We got the hump-backed little bastards here, too. When we built the Aerie in the summer of 2006 they were virtually non-existent. The same is true for 2007 and 2008. But not today.

Good God Almighty! Are there black flies out there today! I wanted to get some more top soil (10 bags) and plant some seeds for zucchini, cucumbers, bush string beans, broccoli, spinach, and lettuce. (Yeah, I know it's a bit late for the last three, but until last week we were getting snow once a week and frost every other day.) I managed to get most of it done but even Deep Woods Off was of little help in keeping the voracious little buffalo gnats (so called because they have humped backs like the American bison) away. I don't remember the last time I ran into flies this thick even in the Adirondacks.

I hate black flies! There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Does it help if I say I hate white flies too? For an entirely different reason, of course. White flies suck the juice out of some of my favorite plants--especially, it seems, geraniums. Black flies suck my blood and their bite itches for hours if I can refrain from scratching or days if I can't.

The fact that they are out and about now means they will finish their "business" and disappear early...I hope. They typically do not like the warm weather and two weeks of it will send them packing. Terry and I have a date out in Eugene, OR the weekend of May 16-17. We'll be driving so we'll be on the road for a couple of weeks. With luck the flies will be gone by the time we get back.