There's a buzzing sound in our backyard. It started a few weeks ago and seems to have grown more pronounced. The cicadas have emerged from the ground where they have been for several years, shed their old skin, and started a racket! Cicadas are not locusts, although many of us refer to the insects and the sound that they make as locusts. However, Cicadas are related to leaf-hoppers and spittlebugs.

It's the male that makes all the noise, sometimes as loud as 120 decibels.

Apparently, cicadas are eaten in some cultures. In the U.S., an ice cream shop, "Sparkys" in Columbia, Missouri incorporated cicadas in a single batch of ice cream in 2011. I love ice cream, but wouldn't have tried that delicacy. And few had the chance as it turned out. The local health department advised that there should not be a second batch. 

Seven weeks of summer remain.  Long after the kids return to school, I'll be swimming in my pool and thinking about familiar ice cream!