As Pale As A Ghost!

  It was workday here on the Bayou.  Yard work has been put off long enough and if the weather insists on it being springtime, then lets just go with the flow and agree.  Its springtime...or at least it is until the next cold spell.  So let the gardening and cleanup begin!  The first thing to go was the old wisteria arbor.  It had seen better days and since repairing it was far harder than replacing it, the thing smashed to the ground. Goodbye arbor!  You have served well but it is time to bid you farewell. Then came the woodpile.  Since few fires have been needed in the old wood stove, the pile had become an unsightly mess!  The logs too rotten met the same fate as the old arbor and were heaved to the burn pile.  Any solid pieces were restacked on the steel rack and were covered.  If not needed to supply warmth indoors, the fire pit outside will soon be in use.  There is nothing better than sitting outside around the fire pit on chilly evenings as you listen to the critters foraging around the Bayou. That makes for an interesting evening!

 It was on the woodpile that a critter was encountered that temporarily drew the attention away from chores.  A single white roach (yep, I watched the critter for a bit before..umm..ridding the woodpile of the intruder) clung to one of the split logs.  The roach made no effort to scurry away to a hiding place so I had a front row seat to observe the critter.  A white roach...imagine that!  Living on the Bayou, any number of critters can be found creepy-crawling about the place but it is rare that a white roach is seen.  Nope, it is not considered a "rare" species nor is it even remotely unusual.  Sighting one is just difficult.  Contrary to what is the common thought of the critter, it is not an albino.  The roach is just like any other roach except that this one was undergoing a specific change in its life.  Roaches are like all other critters that have hard exoskeletons.  They have to shed their old outer shells when they get too large for them.  There is just no other way to "change clothes". The white roach that was seen today was doing just that.  It was shedding...or, to be more precise, had just shed.  Its new outer layer had not hardened yet.  Once the process is fully complete, the roach would acquire its normal coloring once again. 

  The shedding of its outer "shell" accounts for the critter's inability to scamper about.  When I uncovered the critter, it could do no more than cling to the log.  Had it stayed exposed long, either a predator (such as a bird or lizard) would have snatched the tasty (icky!) tidbit for a snack or it would have been dehydrated by the bright sunshine.  At this point, the critter is highly vulnerable...to even things like my shoe!  So long, ghost roach!  So long, arbor!  So long, rotten firewood!  The garden area looks so much better already!