Saturday, May 25, 2019

Cuckoo spit

I kid you not. I read that the foam produced by what we commonly call "spittlebugs" in English is called le crachat du coucou in French. Cuckoo spit. Since cuckoos and spittlebug foam both appear in springtime in France, their coincidence may be the origin of the nickname.

Patooey!

Friday's predicted rain and thunderstorms didn't materialize. I ran some errands in the morning, including taking the recycling to the collection point, getting some wine at a winery in the next town over, exchanging empty butane tanks for full ones (for the kitchen stove and bbq grill), and picking up some surplus vegetable seedlings from a nearby friend. That friend also gave us some more rhubarb from her garden, and Ken will get some strawberries from the market in town this morning, so I'm already thinking of making a pie.

6 comments:

  1. Oooh, Cuckoo spit and strawberry/rhubarb pie in the same post! How lucky are WE? ;)

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  2. As Seine Judeet said -- it just doesn't get much better than that.
    Wondering what the black things are in the spit -- ticks? Oh, lovely day.

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  3. judy, not lucky enough, lol!

    emm, I think they might be the adult version of the nymph that makes the spittle, but I'm not at all certain.

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  4. You even make spittle bug spit look almost beautiful!

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  5. "Cuckoo spit" in British English too. Where the idea comes from I don't know - maybe simply that it looks like an external imposition on the plant

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  6. Just read a disturbing article about these and that some carry a disease that has been destroying olive groves in Italy. And they’re on the move. There’s a program to track them.

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