I have been bad. I haven’t been taking care of the yard lately. I will say I have been too busy, but maybe it’s been being too lazy. I enjoy working on the yard, so I was glad to get out there this weekend and pull some weeds. When I started I came across a baby grasshopper, but had forgot to have my camera ready for that encounter. Luckily though a Praying Mantis also made an appearance. Winter is approaching, so not sure how many insects will stick around, but I will have my camera ready if they decide to visit.

Every time we go into the garden store I see the praying mantis egg sacs in the refrigerator and I think that would be fun to do. Well then I finally did it. We bought two praying mantis egg sacs and I hung one in the front yard and one in the backyard. Last weekend while gardening I came across this Praying Mantis. Is it one of the hatched babies? I don’t know, she or he was definitely different then the mantis’ I have seen before, so maybe it is!

I love our yard. I especially enjoy our Kangaroo Paws. They seem to attract lots of insects and hummingbirds. It is most fun when it is time to cut off the dying paws, because then that’s when I end up finding lots of hidden visitors. This time I came across two Katydids, which is the first time I have seen them in our yard and one Praying Mantis.

Luckily on this day I had brought my camera to work, because a beautiful Praying Mantis decided to hang out by our back door. She was quite interested in what I was doing and was a bit feisty. Here are some photos from that day.

I first fell in love with insects when I met my first Praying Mantis when I was a young girl. They fascinated me and I was intrigued because they didn’t run away. Now I enjoy “dancing” with them. For years I didn’t pay much attention to the insects around. When we bought our house we spent a lot of time choosing California drought friendly plants and replanted our entire front and backyard. Soon after that I ran into a Praying Mantis. I was so excited I hadn’t seen a Mantis for years. I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. Soon after that I went onto Ebay and bought a Macro lens. I started to discover all sorts of insects in our yard and started taking pictures. I have now run into many wonderful insects and hope to be able to find more to take pictures of. I hope with my blog I will be able to share with you the pictures I take and stories that go along with them. I also will post here if I happen across any interesting news or stories that don’t involve my photos. Please come visit often to see what insect is sharing my life with me.