Caught In the Act!

I noticed this mantis only because of the yellow admiral butterfly wings. She is a slim female, which means either she has already laid her eggs, or is a long way off doing so. Note how she grips the butterfly’s body in one of her powerful front legs, while holding the butterfly’s lower wing back over her shoulder. Afterwards she had trouble cleaning all the butterfly hair off herself.

Today I used the chainsaw for the first time in 5 or 6 months. I was a bit nervous about starting because of how bad I have been feeling after splitting logs with the axe. The saw was heavy to carry, but once I got going on the job it was fine. It is so well balanced that it somehow loses a couple of kilos in the operation. I cut and stacked more than a week’s worth of logs and felt very pleased with myself.

My apologies for being incommunicado for a while. My feeling unwell coincided with the urgent need to work on the firewood. During the weeks I should have been preparing it there was rain almost every day. Then I was sidetracked by other things. It’s amazing how quickly Bliptime can be filled up. I keep taking photos every day. I have just posted a week’s worth starting here.