Opening Gazania

A lovely sunny day with the chill gone from the nor’wester even though it comes from the snow. I found this Gazania partly open. The rest of its petals were still curled up.

I found a third praying mantis egg case in a good position.

One of the fantails has been coming inside the house several times a day. Whenever the weather is fine I have doors and windows wide open. This allows the small midges to come in. They are only about 2 mm long, and apart from the risk of inhaling them they are not a problem. For the fantails they are prey and that is what they are after when they come into the house. Today one was flitting about the livingroom when I started up the vacuum cleaner. I thought it would fly out the open door, but obviously it regarded the cleaner as competition. It sat on a high branch of the rubber plant and shrieked loudly for the best part of ten minutes as I cleaned. These tiny birds are fearless.