Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Guess what I did this evening?

It was a beautiful evening out tonight. What had been 90+ degrees all day turned to cool and breezy. So I decided to take all of my treasures out back to enjoy.
I grabbed my stack of library books and my stack of library magazines and a cool diet soda on ice. I went out back and sat down at the patio table...all set to read to my heart's content.
Well...the girls were out "free ranging" so here they come hopping up onto the deck to see what I'm doing. They're so nosy. So of course I got distracted. And I had to run in the house and get my camera. So as I was taking photos of the girls I realized that the lighting at dusk was looking pretty good for some garden shots. So I ran back in the house, got my flip flops and headed out to the garden. And thank goodness I did...because had I not I would have missed this:
A little tiny baby praying mantis! What a pleasant little surprise he was...it made my night. This is my favorite bug in the whole world. I love them and appreciate them. (And isn't it a relief to see a GOOD bug in my garden finally?!) One year Chris was repairing our fence and came across a large cocoon. We had no idea what it was so we put it in a jar and waited. A few days later we look into the jar and there are tons of little baby mantis' hatching from the mystery cocoon. We were SO excited. They lived in our Japanese Maple for a few day until eventually they all disappeared.
By the time I got back to my stack of books it was pretty close to dark outside and the ice in my soda was melted. Sooo...I grabbed up my reading material and headed in the house. I came into my room...all ready to read again...but then decided that I wanted to upload the photos onto my computer. Between garden photos, baseball photos and chicken photos I had to upload 250 pictures! It took a while...but eventually I was done. Now...this would have been a good time to stop, relax and read a while before bed, right? But...instead, I decided I needed to blog about it all.
So I did. And now I'm done. And too tired to read. Good night.

4 comments:

Wren said...

LOVE your stack of books. Okay.. The Backyard Beekeeper is probably my most favorite bee reference (Beekeeping for Dummies is good too - believe it or not). My mom got it for me for Christmas a few years ago. I am going to have to look at the cookbook now too... Sounds like a wonderful evening.

Anonymous said...

wow, way cool on the praying mantis. Not sure if we have those in my parts.

I just have to tell you - I read your side bar verse in my daily Bible reading this morning and I immediately thought of you. It is a great verse for homesteading.

Hope you get to read today.

You Can Call Me Jane said...

I love your praying mantis photograph- beautiful!

Anonymous said...

i adore praying mantis'.

i think i spend four hours outside one day last summer just watching one and to see a wee one is so great. and you captures such a great shot!

your books will still be there. i have to check out your backyard one, haven't seen it.