The praying mantis has long been a favourite insect. When I was a kid I used to go to the library and take out piles of sciency kid's books with titles such as "The Frog" or "The Earthworm". They were kid's books, so they were small and packed with photos but each book had me excited to go out and find these creatures. I once found a praying mantis and kept it as a pet for a few days. I didn't put it in a cage but let it run loose in my room. I also took it outside and left it on a sedum where it caught a large bumble bee and proceeded to eat the entire thing. The whole ordeal was fascinating to watch. I also fed it drinks of water with an eyedropper (as per the book). Some mantids can be quite aggressive. I once encountered a large female on the sidewalk and she actually hissed at me as if to suggest she could take me on!

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I just went to Rannie's site and there's a photo of me posted! It's from back in the fall on a trip to Ward's Island (before the haircut). I had long hair most of my life but I'm so used to the short now it's kind of strange to look at long hair photos.

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An article about my gardening site came out in the Globe & Mail over the weekend. Of course I wasn't notified but thankfully a reader emailed me and I was able to procure a print copy in the nick of time. Still trying to locate copies of articles from the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen. There were a few boo boos in the article (but overall not too shabby) but the part that had me giggling was a description of me as "...slight, intense, and wears the glasses of the artistically inclined." Slight? No. Intense? I'll give her that. The whole glasses bit? Well I love how things have changed because 10 years ago I was told by more than one person that I "Looked like Nana Mouskouri" or that I, "Intimidated people with my scary schoolteacher look." What a difference a day makes.