There is a praying mantis that lives in the nasturtiums under the kitchen window. I see him often, though I've never caught him hunting. Tuesday afternoon he was sunning himself and I decided to try the ultra close up button on my camera...

I think he (she?) enjoyed posing for me.

The trucks keep coming and the great mountain of corn silage continues to grow... I think they might be finished next week. I certainly hope so. The constant rumbling of trucks coming and going is doing its annual thing on my nerves, though I think resignation is finally setting in and it is just too '"been there done that" to get so worked up about it any more.

We must find our silver linings where we can... :-)


Earlier this week, I was working on putting the garden to bed for the year. On Monday I attacked the climbing rose bush as it was starting to overstrain its support. It fought back visciously. Seriously, you should see my arms!



Can you see that the seeds are all gone from the sunflowers? The little finches that live under the eaves have filched them all! They are like a flock of little brown butterfiles. When they fly away from me and my camera the "whoosh" of all their wings is amazingly loud. I don't know why they are so frightened of me. Perhaps the cats have taught them to be careful...

Even though it is the last day of September, the roses are still as beautiful as ever, even though the nights are getting colder and the buds aren't as perfect as they could be. I have had them blooming at Christmas some years, though never as lavishly as they do in May and June. I love my roses so much. This bush is one of 4 that Jake bought me as a valentine gift a month after we moved on to the dairy. Truly, a gift that keeps on giving!

I still need to cut back the perrennial herbs, and then pull up the dying annuals. That's the one gardening task I don't enjoy. It is just seems a little mean, like kicking someone when they're down. I know, I know they are just plants, but I have been taking care of them as living things all summer and abruptly killing them just goes against the grain.

I finally cleaned out the upstairs studio on Wednesday when the constant coming and going to the trucks drove me inside. Yesterday I sat down at the desk and promptly messed it up again with my scrapbooking stuff. I have made it an ongoing project to recover our photographs from the old style "magnetic" pages and put them in something more photo friendly.

I am about half way through 1995 now. My goodness but I was skinny that year! And it's been fun to relive the girls' childhoods in memory. I don't really want to do it again for real, even though they were fun as children. They are fun now too, especially now that Lydia has her drivers' license and takes a little of the pressure off for errand running.

I always swore I would never get into scrapbooking, and at least I haven't gone completely overboard. Yet. My layouts are very simple -- no yarns or ribbons or embellished bottle caps. I do love stickers though. As much as any kid! I think maybe I'll go shopping for some new stickers today. At least it will get me away from the trucks. Is that a great excuse or what!