We've Been Invaded

As of yesterday, our house is infested with ladybugs!  They were swarming yesterday so that you couldn’t walk outside without having to swat them away from your face, and the sides of the house were covered with them.  Today the swarms have disappeared, but an awful lot of ladybugs have taken up residence in the living room and downstairs bathroom.  I am relatively fond of ladybugs, but, even so, I don’t like to see them crawling all over my interior walls and ceilings.  T. and I armed ourselves with stepstools and cups, and caught and removed at least 50 of the silly little things (I couldn’t concentrate on his schoolwork today until they were out – bugs crawling on the walls are just too distracting).

Last night we went to see the bishop officially install Father Ralph as our “new” vicar, and then to enjoy the pot luck that followed.  The late hour (it was supposed to start at 6:30, but the bishop couldn’t find the church) and the length of the ceremony were not conducive to bringing out the best behavior in my little darlings, but they weren’t actually disruptive.  The bishop, while a bit long-winded, gave quite a good sermon.  Father Ralph is very warm and kind, but he reads his sermons (and they are sermons, not homilies, like Father Mike gave) from his notes, and they sound like written papers.  The pot luck after was truly excellent!  It may be a very small congregation, but it has a lot of fine cooks.   Only one slice was left of my chocolate pumpkin cake by the time we left, which was most satisfactory.