Lydia the Lazy Ladybug
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Once upon a time there lived a lazy ladybug named Lydia. She was a playful ladybug with a big imagination who lived in a beautiful flower garden that surrounded a grand old estate. Ladybugs like Lydia are also known as lady beetles or ladybirds. Lydia was red witb black spots while some ladybugs are orange, some are yellow, some have spots and some do not. There are almost 5,000 different species of ladybugs. The different colors and number of spots help to identify Lydia and other ladybugs. Ladybugs are a type of beetle, and like all insects, they have six jointed legs. The bright color of their bodies help warn other animals not to eat them. Ladybugs may be pretty, but they can spray fluid from their joints that make them taste really bad! Lydia was kind and friendly to everyone, but she did not like to work. She wanted to spend her time daydreaming, napping and dreaming some more. Lydia didn't have many friends, so most of her time was spent alone. In the morning when the ladybugs left their homes and flew from plant to plant, cleaning the leaves and protecting the flowers from pesky little bugs called aphids, Lydia did not. She was busy thinking about how far she would have to fly or climb to get the best view. Lydia would zoom around the garden until she found the highest branch and then lightly land on a leaf, still moist from the morning dew. Lydia would snuggle down into the soft green leaf, roll over on her back (a ladybug likes to "play dead" when feeling threatened) and Lydia would lie that way just for fun, gaze into the sky and smile. She was happy to stay that way ALL DAY LONG! Lydia would watch puffy white clouds float slowly and silently by. She liked to imagine that the sky was a great big flower garden and each cloud was a differnt flower or some kind of insect. She imagined roses, apple blossoms and butterflies to name a few. Hours would pass and Lydia would hardly notice.
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About the Book
Lydia the Lazy Ladybug is a creative and extraordinary creature. This is a story about Lydia and how being different, can lead to new adventures. Ladybugs are busy! They have a lot of things to do, like eat other bugs, and lay lots of eggs, in a very short lifespan.
Lydia is a dreamer, and she would rather watch the clouds go by and listen to sounds in the world around her instead of doing what other ladybugs expect her to do. Lydia spends most of her time alone in an imaginary world. Lydia wanders too far away one day and something happens. Suddenly, she finds herself in the perfect environment with other ladybugs just like her. Lydia learns that there is a time to get your work done and a time to daydream.
Beautiful color photographs and fun filled facts about ladybugs remind us that they are an important part of our ecosystem and an excellent natural predator for aphids in your garden. Ladybugs like Lydia can often be purchased at a local nursery for release at home during the spring and summer months.
About the Author
Darcy Wheeler was born in rural Maine. Separated from her family at a young age, she was adopted by a loving couple, college professors who would relocate to Ann Arbor, Michigan some years later. Growing up as an only child, Darcy had an active imagination that included a few imaginary friends. Summers were spent with her parents, camping and canoeing against the picturesque backdrop of the remote regions and waterways of both Maine and Michigan.
In her thirties, she was blessed with the unbelievable opportunity to reunite with her sisters, aunts, their families and other members of her biological family. Such unusual and bittersweet experiences taught Darcy that each and every unique event on our life’s journey turns and molds us into the people we are meant to become. Always a reminder, that it is not where we start, but where we finish that really matters.
After a lifetime of traveling and living in many states from one coast to the other, Darcy now resides in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband, two awesome teenagers and several somewhat domesticated animals.
Favorite childhood authors such as: Robert McCloskey, Beatrix Potter, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Seuss and Judy Bloom, further fueled her love of stories, especially happy endings and were the first books read to her own children.
The creation of many of her colorful characters were inspired by both actual events and her children’s flair for the dramatic. Merlin the Moose was a beloved stuffed animal; Morty the Monster came from a fear of "something" under the bed; Duncan the Dragon just arrived as a delightful idea; Lydia the Lazy Ladybug, a story of fun facts about these natural, organic predators for your garden; Melinda the Musical Mouse, a small illustration of how sharing and teamwork can change things in a big way; and Curly the Corkscrew Cow, a tall tale that attempts to help one better understand how to acclimate to life in the southwest.
Darcy writes to celebrate the many and often surprising gifts our loving God has given to us; in life, by our families, through our children, and sometimes heartbreaking circumstances.
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning to dance in the rain.” Anonymous