Garden excitement May 12, 2007
I know. Most of the time when I find bugs in the garden I certainly don’t find it exciting. At least not in a pleasurable way. But when I found this baby praying mantis playing on my cucumber yesterday morning, I was ecstatic. He’s so cute. I’ve never seen one so small before. I hope he stays. He was in the same area later in the evening, and I was able to show him to Dave. Yeah. We’re very pleased to have him.
In case you’re having trouble seeing him, he’s standing on the side of the clay pot, facing down. You’re looking straight at his back, and can’t see his cute little face or his front feet/hands.
I’ve had the pleasure of re-finding some of the blogs that I lost when I had two blog lists to look at. One of them is Tanabata’s blog, In Spring it is the Dawn. I’m not sure when I found her, and it’s unfortunately been a long time since I visited. Not only is she a fabulous photographer, but she loves to read. While I was visiting this morning, I 
found that she joined the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge. For the challenge readers are supposed to consume mysteries by six authors they haven’t read before between June 1 and August 31. And there will be weekly book prizes. Sounded like fun. I wish I’d found this earlier yesterday, as I just started a mystery by an author I haven’t read before, Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart. Bad timing, that. Oh well. I’m sure I can find more mystery authors around this house that I haven’t read yet. It’ll be fun.
tanabata May 12
Thank you so much for your kind words and for stopping by my blog this morning. :)
~Kristie May 12
oohh.. how cute! I’ve seen lots of praying mantis before, but never a baby. Thanks for sharing. I hope it sticks around so you can watch it grow.
Good luck with your summery mystery reading challenge. I *do* like a good mystery, so if you run across something you’d recommend, let me know so I can put it on my library list.
KarenJoSeattle May 12
Baby mantises are a good sign in the garden.
Have you read any Barbara Vine? She’s the alternate pen name of Ruth Redell. Her books are more psychological suspence and what-the-heck-is-going-on than who-done-it. My favorites are Judgement in Stone and A Dark Adapted Eye. Judgement is short and a fast read.
Or how about The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve? She writes literary novels but many have a mystery or suspense in them. This one involves figuring out an old mystery while the present involves some suspense.
Thomas H. Cook writes a lot of one-offs that have a big twist at the end. His style is somewhat Faulknerian. He writes very well.
None of these would be called cozy, though, if that’s more your taste. There’s a Dutch author who’s books are a bit like Maigret. If I remember his name, I’ll post it. I haven’t been reading many mysteries the last couple of years so I don’t remember many off the top of my head.
Angela May 12
HUGE Praying mantis lover here. I don’t touch them, just love to watch them. Here’s hoping we will spot more this year too!
Mikki May 12
Here is the photo of the mantis I was telling you about Saturday.
It was so good to see you!
Mikki May 12
http://vitasenzalimitiphotoblog.wordpress.com/tag/things/animals/page/3/
Oops, I forgot the link! Too much tea!
Nicki May 14
Isn’t he cute! We had quite a few praying mantis in NZ and they are lovely. The bigger ones used to wave their legs at us fiercely. So funny such a little insect attacking big humans!
I’m off to look at that Mystery Challenge - sounds interesting!
Caroline May 14
Baby praying mantises are so cute. They’re so beneificial too…except to their mates. Aren’t they in the “kill your mate after sex” category of insect?!!
The Mystery Challenge sounds like a fun summer activity. I love finding blogs that I’ve “misplaced.” I did that with you kind of for a while, and I’m so glad I found you back.