Hi, neighbors. Take time to enjoy a good cup of hot coffee and celebrate the passing of April 15 for another year. I hope everyone who owes money gets it paid in as our mutual uncle tends to get a bit testy when he doesn't get his greens on a regular basis.

One good thing about April is spring is here in full force. I've enjoyed it so far. Not too many thunderstorms yet, and no tornadoes. The trees are leafing out and there is some color in the yards. The redbud trees are getting into the act and the dandelions are progressing quite nicely.

The squirrels have stopped being quite so erratic and the robins have stopped fighting amongst themselves. The big news at our house is "Blackie" is back.

Blackie is any single one of countless generations of black jumping spiders that move into my house each spring. From April to mid-winter a single Blackie reigns supreme.

He starts out small in the kitchen. I don't mind him being there as he keeps the ants at bay. The only problem is I have to remember to check that he isn't on the spigot handles when I turn on the water. A few times I have to rescue him from the sink since once he crawls in he can't crawl out.

Sometime in mid-summer he migrates from the kitchen into the front room, where he stays till he disappears in the late fall or midwinter. By the time he reaches the front room he is full grown and easily seen strutting across my white ceiling.

My son Bill, who has a trepidation about spiders in general, accepts Blackie as long as he stays on the ceiling. Once he was on the desk and Bill let out a yell. "Mom! Come and get Blackie. He knows he's not supposed to get on the desk!"

I don't know if Blackie was aware of that rule or not, but he was content to jump from a piece of paper onto the curtain and hightail it back to the ceiling. I honestly don't know what Blackie lives on all summer. I assume houseflies, dust mites or any other tiny creatures that wonder in through the window screens. At any rate, it's not officially spring till Blackie appears.

Last month Bill called to chat and asked about Blackie. Of course it's not the same spider each year, but I'm sure it's an offspring. So each year the new keeper of the windows is given the same family nickname.

I'm not big on bugs in general, but some are nice to have around. Some are just fun to look at, and others are just strange. One year there was an albino praying mantis that was on the window screen for several days. This was the window next to the flower bed so I suppose he thought he had good cover. An odd and strange little creature, with no green camouflage, I'm sure he was destined for a non-colorful and most likely short life.

Jenny used to catch butterflies for her room and fed them by putting little trays of sugar water in the window sill.

Occasionally lightening bugs would find their way in, helped no doubt by the quart jar transport method.

Like it or not, spring and summer are the seasons for bugs. A friend sent me a photo of some kind of huge bug supposedly found in Iraq. She got the photo from someone else and although there are people in U.S. Army fatigues in the background, I don't know if the bugs are from Iraq or not, and so far haven't been able to verify it.

These things have legs a foot long! Their bodies are a good 8 inches long and they can reportedly run up to 10 miles per hour. Thank goodness they are also supposedly non-biters, but who would want to be the one to find out? Their bodies look like crawdads, but the legs are definitely spider like. Not anything I'd want chasing me or crawling into my tent or bedroll at night. I'm sure anyone who would see this creature for the first time, particularly if they saw it up close and personal, would remember it for the rest of their lives.

Blackie never gets any bigger than the nail on a pinkie. I just hope no one decides to bring one of those "monster spiders" home from Iraq!

Until the next time friends remember, every good thing has it's drawbacks. Even spring has taxes and bugs. Luckily, none of the bugs around here like coffee!