Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

Well, Checkers had a good day today.

A 5-year old friend came to visit and Checkers could finally play with somebody her own size! We went outside, climbed on the long neglected swing set and found all sorts of things, including old wasp nests, doggie land mines...and, most exciting of all, an egg sac from a praying mantis.

So of course we had to find a picture of a praying mantis, since he (the boy) had never seen one, and that picture including a gripping story of the praying mantis, who is faster than the eye can see when it wants to be and absolutely still when it wants to be, laying in wait for an unsuspecting slow little caterpillar. The caterpillar did get caught and eaten, which my little (male) friend enjoyed immensely. Plus he thinks they look pretty cool because here is an animal which looks like kind of like a leaf. I've promised him pictures of the mantises when they hatch.

Praying mantis is sometimes misspelled "preying mantis," which, if you think about it, works too. The scientific name is mantis religioso. The actual word mantis comes from the Greek meaning prophet, which somehow ties right in there. I'm happily looking forward to another year of natural pest control in the garden.

Then another friend called, and ended up bringing her grand-dogs over for a run in our backyard, which is about 2/3 the size of a football (American) field. They loved it.

My dog had a play-date.

The only bad thing about Checker's day was that I refused to give her one of the chocolate chip cookies that the five year old and I made. But the five year old thinks the cookies are absolutely wonderful.