Cicadas

I heard the first cicadas today, chattering outside my study window. Amazing how such tiny things can make such a loud noise. Just for a few minutes, then they (or it) stopped. Then again, half an hour later. A sure indication that summer is here.

The first summer we were here, 1998, the boys and I went back to the UK for six weeks while Richard stayed here. We flew on the last day of June, since prices were much less in June than July, and returned mid-August. Before we left, the cicadas hadn't started, and while we were away Richard got used to them and had forgotten about them. I'll never remember my shock having arrived back in Larnaka about 11pm and collapsed into an exhaustes sleep, waking about 7am to the most incredible racket outside.... sitting bolt upright, and asking, 'What on earth is THAT??" To which Richard couldn't even think what I was referring to at first.

But true enough, in later years we too reached the stage of being able to shut out the noise entirely. What strange creatures they are - here's a site describing their life-cycle. They only survive one season as insects - sucking juices from the trees and mating. But their larva burrow into the ground and stay there up to 17 years before emerging, climbing trees, and starting the cycle over again. Amazing.