In our second-floor apartment, we rarely saw any living thing besides the occasional ant. For the most part, I was happy with that. But for better or worse, our house is smack in the middle of a thriving ecosystem.
For example, this praying mantis has decided to take up permanent residence on the doorframe out front. He was quite unpreturbed by the camera, even when I stuck it an inch from his face. I took these photos yesterday; he’s still there today. He’s about three inches long, which is freaking huge for a bug this scary looking.
I hung up a hummingbird feeder soon after we moved in. We have lively hummingbird wars in the backyard now–so much so that the buzz past our ears chasing each other when we step outside.
We have an eighteen-inch snake living somewhere in our backyard. He’s a gorgeous creature. We see him in the evenings occasionally.
Yesterday I cut these flowers from the space next to our driveway. I brought them in, stuck them in a vase, and then noticed a bee still had his head buried deep in one of the centers, feeding. I took the vase outside and snapped this before blowing on him to get him to fly away.
Then, of course, there’s the wasps and the spiders and the millipedes and the ants and the dragonflies and the butterflies and the grasshoppers that flee in terror when we edge the lawn. I’ll have to get pictures of the grasshoppers one of these days. They’re quite pretty. And probably snake food.
