Hello! I’m back! Besides having an especially busy couple of weeks, there were some technical difficulties that kept me away. Our phone line was full of static, with the internet going on and off, being super slow, and then not working altogether. Turns out there was a wasp’s nest in the phone box we share with our neighbor, and they had done some damage to the line. Once that was fixed, my computer stopped working. (Yes, again. Yes, it’s brand new. Don’t get us started.) Jeff dropped it off at the shop, and I was able to pick it up on Friday. We were barely home over the weekend, and now I sit here on a rainy Monday morning, taking a deep breath after all the activity, and relishing a few quiet moments to come back here and write.
It feels good to be back here. And I’m feeling very grateful for a working computer and internet! The last few weeks were a flurry of activities, including wrapping up end of year school projects and performances. I’m looking forward to sorting through all my pictures, but for now I have this picture to share with you. This was a dragonfly friend we had at our house recently, found at a nearby gardening store. When the boys returned home that day, I was told the story that it was barely alive when they found it, and needed to be brought home to care for. A few days later Jeff found a moth in the garden with a broken wing, and Mr. seven-year-old took it upon himself to care for that new friend too. (He has his own little healing center for insects.)
We always have various insects coming to live with us. (As those of you regular readers already know.) Most often it is moths and butterflies, but lately it has included dragonflies (we’ve been finding them around the garden all the sudden, including some bright red ones.) Also, there is a whole colony of ants living on our front porch. (In a homemade ant farm. It was in the house until the ants started escaping and I insisted they live on the porch instead.) Weeks ago, we had a praying mantis cocoon in a container in our house that we kept checking to see if it hatched, and it felt like it was taking forever. One day the lid was left off, and we were surprised to find hundreds of teeny tiny praying mantises crawling around our living room. It was quite the surprise. We’ve had praying mantises live with us before, and they’ve become some of my very favorite insects, I think they are amazing.
In non-dragonfly-related news (or other insects for that matter), we’re getting ready for the Black Sheep Gathering, the last weekend in June, where our family has a booth every year. It will be at a new location. Any of you planning to go?
Andrea says
Oh that dragonfly is quite lovely! My son has a bug observation box and one day he accidentally left the door ajar, releasing a few wolf spiders loose in the house. The box was sitting on the kitchen table so he could show his dad when he got home, but the spiders were gone when he got to it. Oh well! What did you do about the praying mantis in your house?
tarynkae says
Our boy enjoyed catching the tiny praying mantises as he found them (gently, because they were so small) and putting them in the large cages we got for them. 🙂 For a few days we kept finding them, but we haven’t seen any free-rangers since.
Kathie Gray says
Glad your back and oh the joys of country living! We too are at the mercy of nature and the elements for our power, internet etc. Bracken must be very good at caring for insects, that dragonfly looks very healthy now. Just today my nearly 7 yr old was trying to persuade me we needed to adopt all the caterpillars infesting my veg plants!