Ladybugs Under The Old Oak Tree

"Ladybug ladybug fly away home..."

I have a confession to make.  I have a serious aversion to real ladybugs.  It goes back to my college days when thousands of them invaded my dorm room each year.  Every year our dorm was overrun by ladybugs sunning themselves on the outside walls.  That was fine.  It was when they all moved into the dorm that I started having issues with them.  I had always really liked ladybugs until I had to live with huge numbers of them falling from the ceiling and light fixtures on my while I slept or into my drink.  Just thinking about it makes me shiver and feel itchy.

So, fast-forward ten + years, and I am ever so slowly embracing the ladybug again.  I know they are a very beneficial insect to have in your garden, and are harmless in the great outdoors (probably indoors too, but I have baggage around that.)  When I took W strawberry picking, I even caught one for him to see.  It didn't even make me squirm.  I was very proud of myself for being able to handle and enjoy seeing the ladybug.  

I'm not sure this could have happened if W and I had not been doing some serious ladybug reading.  Our first trip to the library in our new town, we found Ladybug, Ladybug by Ruth Brown.  It quickly became one of our favorite books.

The illustrations in this version of this nursery rhyme is just so beautiful!  The depictions of the English countryside where the ladybug meets animals are so gentle and lovely.  W and I also love the poetry of the rhyme and it is yet another example of our love of nursery rhymes that I wrote about previously.

So, to celebrate my new found respect (and possibly even love) of all things ladybug, the newest addition to my Under The Old Oak Tree Etsy shop is this needle felted ladybug.