LadyBug Shop featured in Delaware Today

This month's issue of Delaware Today, the state's leading magazine, ran a nice story about small towns in Kent County. Not only did it highlight our hometown, Milford, it gave special attention to the LadyBug Shop. You can read the article at :
http://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/March-2010/Main-Events/ 
I was especially pleased that in a companion article the magazine included a great photo of kids enjoying the LadyBug Parade, the event that starts Milford's annual Bug & Bud Festival each year. This year the seventh Bug & Bud Festival will be held on Saturday, April 24. Its a great time to visit Milford! The LadyBug Shop will be using our parking lot as the venue for this year's Ladybug Sidewalk Art Contest. And as always, Rhonda and I, together with some of our grand kids, will be leading the parade.

Wild, Wild World Ladybugs Presentation at AMNH

Coming this April to the American Museum of Natural History is

Wild, Wild World: Ladybugs

Saturday, April 24, 11am - noon and 1 - 2pm
Linder Theater, first floor
$10 adults, $8 children; Members' tickets are $9 adults, $7 children
Ladybugs-actually lady beetles-may be tiny, but they are an important part of a healthy ecosystem. Cornell entomologist John Losey leads this presentation with live ladybugs, including the now-rare nine-spotted ladybug.

I am sure this will great! If you are like me and cannot attend you can view fun Ladybug Facts and Fantasies online at LadyBug Shop.

New Turtle Cam and a Turtle Named Ladybug

The Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) in Juno Beach, Florida is a non-profit organization that supports a turtle hospital located adjacent to one of the most heavily nested sea turtle beaches in the world. Sick and injured loggerhead, leatherback and green turtles are nursed back to health here. As most turtle lovers know, this winter has been particularly hard on sea turtles living along the Florida coast. This Center and others like it have been working diligently to save as many of these endangered turtles as possible. Other sea turtle patients at the Center include those that have swallowed fishhooks or been injured by boat propellers.

The LMC has just launched a webcam (supported by the Florida Power & Light company) that allows a peek at sea turtles in their tanks. The video feed can be accessed at http://www.fpl.com/environment/plant/turtle_cam.shtml. Right now you can watch the Center's latest patient, which they named "Ladybug", recouperating in her tank. When she is well she will be released back into the ocean. We think this is a great linking of two of our favorite creatures --ladybugs and turtles. Check out all the other things going on at the Center by visiting their website at Marine Life.

Turtle Helps Canadian Win Gold Medal in the Olympics

A turtle helped Canadian Jon Montgomery win a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics skeleton gold medal. (Skeleton or tobogganing is fast winter sliding sport in which an individual rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down, during which athletes experience forces up to five times the normal force of gravity. It is run run on the same track used by bobsleds and luge, but the skeleton sled has no steering or braking mechanism.)

When he competed in the Olympic event Montgomery had a beautiful turtle design painted on the front of his racing helmet.

According to an article in the Vancouver Sun Montgomery had the design put on his helmet just before coming to the Olympics. The inspiration came after members of the Canadian national team visited with a sport shaman (what American might call a "medicine man") in Revelstoke, British Colombia last September. Among the things the athletes did was find their spirit animal. Montgomery's was the turtle so he had Vancouver native artist Phil Gray design the artwork.

"He accompanies me on my helmet and sled," Montgomery said of the turtle, which is painted in a native theme along with a thunderbird, another prized native symbol.

 

Looking for turtle gifts? Visit http://www.turtle-treasures.com/

Celebrating Kent County

A fun article from Delaware Today featuring upcoming events in Kent County Delaware, including of course the Bug and Bud Festival in April.

Ladybug Puppet is Lucky Charm for GI Christopher Anderson

A wonderful story full of love and ladybugs from the Detroit News,

New world awaits GI's homecoming detnews.com The Detroit News

Excerpt:

"They were both bound for Iraq until she found out she was pregnant. Christopher was still around for the baby shower, and he pounced on one of the presents, a ladybug puppet.
That's been their symbol, and his good-luck charm as Isabell (their baby) developed with a mass on her lung that was pushing on her heart. He'd tuck the puppet into his duty vest, next to the extra ammunition."