It is said your day is wasted if you don't learn something

Today I learnt a little about praying mantises.

 Sometimes they visit our garden and hang around on the shade cloth blind that keeps hot sun off the back of our house.  This one was bright green but you can't tell that because of the sun glare, and was several inches long.

This morning this large brown girl - for it is a female - was making her ootheca, or egg capsule.....we know what she was up to a week or so ago, don't we!

 This afternoon she was gone and had left this ootheca behind on the post; the colour could be best described as pea soup green and it's a bit over one inch long, or 2.54 cms if you prefer.

When all those new critters hatch we will have lots of new friends here at the Chateau des Wombats.  If they were cute little things I might keep one as a pet, but I don't do insects.  Fur, yes.  Feathers, maybe.  Fins and scales, definitely not.......we're getting further away from warm and fuzzy here, folks.  I only do warm and fuzzy.

However - my day wasn't wasted, was it?

Last week's promised rain didn't happen.  We had a few spots, a bit of a shower, but it was nothing to get excited about.  So we didn't.  Right now it's trying hard to rain, fingers crossed that it does, as this month is on track to be the one of the driest Februaries ever since records were kept.  That's not the sort of record we wish to set.

Work on Euan's quilt is proceeding, with only eight blocks to be quilted before the border is tackled.  It will have to wait for a little while; this coming Saturday is quilt group and I am organising what to take, and making sure my little vintage Singer Featherweight is oiled and working (My Lovely New Bernina is set up for free-motion quilting, and it's staying that way until Euan's quilt is done) as the plan is to work on making quilts for the local Ronald Macdonald House.  It always takes so long to pack up 'stuff' for a day's sewing, doesn't it?  Then when you get there and start to set up there is always something which has been forgotten, which is why I need to prepare in advance.

Next week we will be away for a few days, we will be making our annual pilgrimage to the Big Smoke to see our financial bloke to make sure we can afford to keep living until Christmas, and to catch up with friends, and to do a little shopping for things which just aren't available here - good quality dark chocolate from a proper chocolate shop, perhaps a CD because my kind of music isn't available here in the Small Smoke, a visit to a big huge book shop - we have a book shop here, but it's not big - maybe even take in an exhibition.  It's going to be a busy few days, isn't it?

Then on Friday we will drive back home, and no doubt breathe a sigh of relief as we leave the Big Smoke behind until the next time.  I lived there for forty years, but now when we visit I find it suffocating.  So many people, so much traffic, so much noise.......

"The girl who has so educated and regulated her intellect, her tastes, her emotions and moral sense, as to be able to discern the true from the false, will be ready for the faithful performance of whatever work in life is alloted to her; while she who is allowed to grow up ignorant, idle, vain, frivolous, will find herself fitted for no state of existence, and in after years, with feelings of remorse and despair over a wasted life, may cast reproach upon those in whose trust was reposed her early education."

That sounds to me like a fancy way of saying girls should learn interesting things - for example, studying about praying mantises.

Enjoy your days!