A country hissy-fit.....

A quaint expression, that:  "hissy-fit."  A nice polite southern way of describing a bad mood.  And this hissy-fit of mine has been lasting for weeks, on and off, depending on what sort of insect or critter I encounter during any given day. Can a hissy-fit last that long?   And could it possibly last for the entire summer, or at least until the last wasp, snake, and scorpion is gone? (Are they ever really gone?)

And let's not even get into the snake situation... which has totally freaked me out since the beginning of May when I found a snake in the guest cottage. Not outside in the grass, but inside the cottage. How uncivilized is that???  I've been having snake dreams on and off ever since, and it's only a matter of time till I find one in the house.  In the house..... now that will be a solid gold hissy-fit for sure.

I love this big old house. That's a given.  I'm beginning to hate (absolutely hate) its location. And I can chalk that up to my own ignorance of the Hill Country. Who knew that within these beautiful green and wildflower-filled pastures that there would be such an abundance of wildlife and insects and everything else that goes bump in the freaking night.

Raccoons and skunks on the porch, foxes in the barn, armadillos all over the yard, hawks eating mice out in the fields, coyotes howling in the night, scorpions in every crevice and underneath every rock, wasps and bees on all the plants and flowers, spiders hanging from every tree, snakes eating baby birds asleep in their nests, and vultures (huge vultures) eating the remains of every dead thing that ends up in the road or in the pastures.

We've been here for five years..... I have tried to adapt.... tried not to be too city and too timid...... but you are what you are.  If you can't bear to even look at a snake on a television screen, then you surely can't bear to look at one as it's curling up in the bath tub of your guest cottage.

I was absolutely thrilled when we made the third floor of this house into a library. It was like the frosting on top of this storybook-cake vintage home.  I had visions of sitting up there on the window-seats with a book, and looking out over the property. However, when you do that, be prepared for a flock of vultures to be circling the pasture and then pouncing on the remains of a dead rabbit that was probably killed by coyotes during the night.  I've abandoned the window seats in favor of the chairs in the middle of the room.

Just the other day, I measured the library windows for curtains.... to block out the view of the vultures. I will buy the same curtains that I put up in the breakfast room to block out the view of the wasp nests and the black spiders, and the same curtains that are in the kitchen, to block out the view of the snakes trying to get up to the bird nests.  I've long ago stopped having lunch on the porch.... there are always bees and wasps underneath the tables and flying around the flowerbeds, vultures and hawks searching the fields, and who knows what's hiding underneath the wicker furniture out there.

My husband says I am letting my imagination control me. He's probably right, but this is the only imagination I've got, and it's all city-born, without one blessed drop of country in it.