A Welcome Guest…

Last wednesday I came home after work and was hurrying to get ready for a costumed fundraiser that Charlie and I were going to later that night.

Telly, our fat Russian Blue-ish feral, never misses a single thing that happens outside when it comes to other creatures passing through our yard.  He is especially excited about the other feral cats and, of course, the birds.  Once a bird perched at the top of the iron bars outside our bedroom window, and you could hear Telly chattering a mile a minute, stretching out his big body and his fat belly trying to reach as high up the window as he could get.

Last Wednesday he jumped onto the bed for his daily “you’re home and it’s time to pet me” visit, when suddenly his attention turned to the window…his eyes got enormous and he leapt to the window sill (not an easy feat for this big boy) and he once again stretched himself out as he chattered away, staring intently at something.

“What do you see, Telly?”  I looked and saw nothing.  Occasionally it will be a tiny spider or a piece of thread…this time it looked like a tiny sliver of plastic on the top of the sill…but at closer inspection, I realized his gaze was a few inches lower.  I bent down and looked up into the window and saw an amazing bug on the outside of the window screen…is it what I think it is?  I ran outside to see. Sure enough!  Here’s our visitor:

I don’t think I have ever seen a praying mantis before, and certainly not up this close.  It let me get closer…

WOW!  Just then I heard some little boys two door down yelling to each other “Hey – there’s a HUGE GRASSHOPPER over here – let’s get it!”

I couldn’t let it happen.  I yelled across the fences – I don’t think that’s a grasshopper…

Their faces popped up over the fence.  “Is it REALLY BIG and green, about this long?” I asked them. “Yes!”  came the reply.  “I have one too, on my window – it’s a praying mantis and they’re good bugs – you don’t want to hurt them because they eat all the bad bugs!”  (that maybe a little bit of a stretch, but I didn’t want them to kill it.)  Their sister heard me and came out of the house “Yeah – it’s a praying mantis and dad says not to kill it – don’t touch it.”  Thank you, dad.

I took a movie of the mantis as it moved its legs and then I realized it had reached the top of the screen and was now at glass and literally couldn’t continue any further, but seemed to be trying.  I took one more picture before offering a stick to the bug, which it clumsily latched onto, and I moved it to the ground in an area where it had access to leaves, twigs, a shrub, a tree, and a fence. (not really sure what ideal mantis habitat is!)  Hopefully it found its way wherever it needed to go!

Thanks for the visit!

Rufus with Window Box…

I am pleased that my window boxes have been doing well.  I recently took the geraniums from the back porch and put them into the window boxes to replace the million bells (which didn’t last more than a week – too hot when I planted them, I think, and they seemed delicate.)

The heliotrope continues to bloom and the sweet potato ivy is doing very well.  The geraniums survived the transplant and add a splash of color from behind the iron bars, as much as they can anyway.

This morning as I left for work I looked at the flowers and saw that someone was keeping watch:

Thanks, Rufus!  When I looked at the second window Telly, our Russian Blue rescue cat, was keeping watch there!  He wouldn’t stick around to be photographed, though.  Too bad – it was a cute scene.

Here are some more pictures and close ups of the flowers.  I hope I’ll still have a few more weeks of enjoying them, and I’m wondering – can I transplant the ivy and bring it inside over the winter?