Tuesday 2 October 2012

Return of the Praying Mantis - 2012

Yesterday we got our first sighting this year of the praying mantis, as one made its way across the top of the garden wall....

 Apologies for the hand in the background.. I was trying to get it to look at the camera and smile...

Unfortunately it did exactly the opposite.....

.... before disappearing into the asters...

The sight of these fascinating creatures is a lovely reminder of our first few weeks in Braye, when we spotted a one amongst the branches of the old leylandii we were cutting down. Then last year it was towards the end of November before we saw one climbing up the house wall

Until these sightings I'd only ever seen an illustration of one in my book 'Rainbow Houses'.

Happy memories and a most intriguing creature!

2 comments:

Diane said...

I have only ever seen one here. I used to hate them in S.Africa where there were many and some up to about 10 inches long, they gave me the creeps!
Keep well Diane

Susan said...

They are amazingly difficult to photograph well, aren't they! They seem to be having a very good year this year - I've seen lots more than usual. Also a stick insect a few weeks ago.