My Southern Patches – Southern Patches

Well Christmas is over for another year. It’s hard to believe it is almost 2024. The years go by so quickly the older you get. I don’t like making New Year’s resolutions because I always seem to disappoint myself. I do like having a word for the year. My word last year was “celebrate”. I decided to celebrate as much as I could all year because life is short and it should be fun. I had a lot of celebrations in 2023. I decided to take a look back at the different celebrations throughout the year. I am so blessed with such a wonderful family and friends.

In February we celebrated my niece for her Birthday.

Also a coworker brought Valentine’s Day goodies.

I made a butterfly tree to celebrate spring.

In April the hubs and I saw the musical production of Cats in Knoxville.

In April we also celebrated my birthday and my sister bought me a tiara.

In May we celebrated the end of my sister’s chemo treatments and I am happy to say she is still doing great and cancer free. Now that truly is a celebration.

In June we celebrated my niece and nephews’ birthdays. We did them together because the dates are close together.

My nephew is a drummer as you can tell by this drum cymbal.

End of June and the hubs and I had a great beach vacation at our favorite beach, Wrightsville Beach, in North Carolina.

August and we took a trip to Northern Europe to several Scandinavian countries. We also took my nephew Tyler with us.

In September I celebrated with two of my coworkers at their wedding.

Late September and we had a short Sister Trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee.

In Early October I got together with some of my cave friends for a trip to Northern California. We visited Shasta Caverns and Shasta Lake.

In October my great nephew Caleb turned 20. He is such a character he always keeps us laughing.

We also had a much needed Sister Lunch with several of the nieces and my nephew Tyler.

December was Tyler’s Birthday and we had a cook out and cake at his house.

And finally it’s December and Christmas with the whole family.

And my hubs and I and all of the fur babies, Gus, Kitty Kitty, Allie, Sadie and Izzie hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that you are planning a wonderful new year!!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Do you ever choose a word for the year. I am currently thinking about my word for 2024. I know it will come to me.

As I said Celebrate was my word for 2023 and I made sure to have as many celebrations as possible. But I actually believe that our best celebrations come just by being who we want to be and doing what we want to do.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Every state has fireflies. We always called them lightening bugs when I was growing up. I don’t think I heard them called fireflies until I was probably an adult. You know those little insects from the beetle family that come out when summer comes and they have a little light that flickers on and off. For me and my brother Joe it wasn’t officially summer until we saw the first flicker of a lightening bug. Of course we had to collect them and see who could get the most. But we always let them go. Our hands always smelled yucky after catching them!!!

Fireflies are found in all the U.S. States, but not all of the species glow. Fireflies that glow are found in the eastern United States, if you live in the West, in states like Washington, Oregon and California you probably won’t see fireflies or you won’t notice them because they don’t light up.

Firefly tourism? who would have ever thought? But it has become a huge business. Starting around the end of may to the first week of June of every year, the fireflies start a courtship. It begins with a few electric lights in the woods and as the night wears on the lights from the fireflies blink in unison. I have never seen it but I have heard it is really something to see. This is a mating or courtship ritual for the fireflies. Eventually during the night hundreds of thousands of fireflies will be blinking their “love lights” off and on.

Each year people from all over the world travel to the Smoky Mountains National Park to see this. Visitors actually have to win a lottery just for the privilege of watching this show. During this time The National Park Service in the Smoky Mountains estimate about 1200 people a night are brought to the trails at the Elkmont Campground. They take a trolly up to the trail to witness this amazing sight.

This year out of Coronavirus related caution, the National Park Service canceled the event. They closed the campground area and barricaded the road that leads to it.

It’s not only in Tennessee. This has become quite a business that now brings in about 200,000 visitors annually. Pennsylvania has the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival. It was canceled this year as well. There is a Firefly Festival in Dover Delaware. It has also been canceled. Is this good or bad? Bad for tourism I know but what about the fireflies?

Photo courtesy of Cleveland.com.

Photo courtesy of Farmersalmanac.com

Photo courtesy of YouTube.com

I know that many people will be disappointed, and it is devastation to tourism. I am a tourism person. I know what this means, but listen: Before one of these beetles goes into the mating ritual it spends a year or two as a larva burrowing through the dirt, this is why they smell so bad when you catch them in your hands. People tramping through the woods to see the firefly show are often oblivious to this. They are squishing these beetles who may never have a chance to glow and mate, etc. Also lights from flashlights and car beams can interfere with the mating ritual of these little light glowing beetles. AHHHH privacy to glow as they want, mate as they want. There may be a baby boom next year, no people or lights to interfere. Who or what could ask for more?

Just my thoughts.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!