Toward the end of the summer season when the long days are growing shorter and the sultry mid day temperatures are waning, the unmistakable fragrance of females begins to permeate the air. But you'll never notice it. Unless you're a male praying mantis. They're everywhere now, males eagerly seeking to procreate with the beckoning females. How could we resist bringing some mantises indoors for observation?

Right now we are studying Zoology and have begun with invertebrates, specifically insects. There are plenty to be found in our garden. The children draw and write down their observations about each new subject in their nature journals. Then we study the creatures more in depth using library book and internet resources. This week we've been focused on Mantises and they are something else!

Just look at the spiny ridge on each front leg, ready to pierce and hold tight its prey. Did you know Mantids are strictly carnivorous?

We have four of them inside a large clear plastic bowl right now. They are playing nice with each other for the moment, but we are making sure to keep them well stocked with plenty of prey.

Mantises have a total of 5 eyes. Two large compound eyes which are clearly visible, and three very small eyes, directly in between the antennae.

Mantises eat their pray alive and struggling. And they devour things rather quickly I might add, which I suppose is good for the struggling insect. They are also particular about which body parts they will eat. The floor of the temporary habitat is littered with insect body parts: moth wings, fly wings, fly legs, june bug casings and wings, etc.

It has been truly fascinating and exciting to watch these amazing hunters. To see the way they cock their head slightly when they've noticed prey, to see the way they patiently and carefully move toward it, to see how quickly they snatch their prey into an inescapable grasp and begin immediately devouring it has been educational and delightful. The children have loved it! We have been leaving our back door open, welcoming flies into the house. With clear condiment cups in hand the kids have been trapping flies on windows, sliding paper beneath each cup and then asking the resident "expert fly releaser" (a.k.a. mom) to get the flies into the habitat without them escaping.

The following are resources we used for our study of the praying mantis:

Mrs. Warner's Fourth Grade Classroom - Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis Love - Video of Mantis Mating and Female eating the Male

Nature's Perfect Predators

We've been having some great growing success in our Austin garden since we moved here. We've enjoyed salad greens, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cucumbers, beets, strawberries, spinach, kale and loads of herbs. Right now we're working on green beans, green peas and carrots as well. I love all of the amazing insects that having a flourishing garden brings, even though that means they're there to munch on everything. Just seeing wildlife of almost any variety brings a smile to my face. 

I found this big beautiful black swallowtail caterpillar hanging out on our parsley today. So I decided to bring him inside and place him in our butterfly habitat. He has been devouring parsley all day and the kids are fascinated watching him munch. 

Take a look at those "claws". I have no idea what they are really called but they look sharp. Also, amazing!

This guy is just so pretty. It's fascinating watching him move around, lift his head off the branch in search of more food. He looks ready to form a chrysalis any day. I'm excited to take some pictures of that as well.

Funnest engagement photo shoot ever! We visited the UP house in Herriman Utah. It happened to be a very windy day. It was her idea to bring balloons and to do jumping pictures to look as though they were floating away. With the gusty wind blowing the balloons to the right and her fiancees mad jumping skills, this worked pretty perfect. She's trying to hold him back in this pic but he's getting swept away.

This is my photo entry for the "Wind" theme at I Heart Faces this month.

I've been busy editing more photographs from the photo shoots I've done with JMugleston's Exotics. All of these prints are available to purchase through my etsy shop. These creatures are just amazing!



  Cuban Knight Anole

  Bearded Dragons

  California King Snake

  Blue Tongue Skink

  Diamond Back Terrapin

  Tokay Gecko

  Black Throated Tuatara Dragon

  Giant Centipede 

  Asian Forest Scorpion

  Lemon Blast Ball Python

  New Caledonian Giant Gecko or Leachie

  Albino Python

  Trinidad Dwarf Tarantula

Maybe one of these days I will get caught up on posting the many many photo shoots I want to share with you. The following photos, for instance, have been sitting on my computer waiting to be posted since August. But finally I've gotten around to watermarking them and writing this post. My niece through marriage, Jenny, was the mastermind behind this whole shoot. All the locations, the props (a few that aren't featured in this post) and the clothes. I just took the photos for her and fiance Harrison and we had a great time.



Cotton candy is always a great photo prop. And more than that, Jenny had a working cotton candy machine at her wedding, complete with bow tied cotton candy maker.



I'm going to guess that kiss tasted like...cotton candy.
















This was the location of their first date I believe.



Such a gorgeous mural in downtown Provo. Who says there's no style in this college town?

 





Dancing to the music of the friendly neighborhood street musicians.

 









Nothing says 'I love you' quite like a kick in the pants.

 





These next few photos were taken at the UP House in Herriman Utah. It was an extremely blustery day though somehow we managed to catch some shots right as each huge gust of wind would die down. I was also worried about the glaring sun beating down on us, but it's position actually created a more dreamy, magical feel. Not unlike the house itself.








The above picture is Jenny's personal favorite. Harrison was so good at jumping like he was getting carried away by those balloons. And with the gusting winds it wouldn't have surprised me if he wasn't faking it.




Loved doing this photo shoot! Thanks so much for asking me Jenny!

As I said in an earlier post, some parts of Texas are a dust bowl, but some parts are lush and green and in Austin's case, hilly. Ladybird Lake (a glorified river) runs through downtown Austin and is a top spot for recreation, as you can see in the photo below.



I took this while my husband drove over Congress Avenue. You may have heard of it referred to as the bat bridge. It's famous for its colony of over 750,000 bats which sleep under the bridge during the day. Lots of folks come to watch hordes of bats fly off at dusk in search of food. From looking at this picture it's hard to believe the bustling downtown is right behind us.


The Austin skyline itself is very nice. The photo above was taken from near the nature center. This skyline is far more beautiful at night. I've been to Chicago, New York, Baltimore and D.C. and other big cities but so far this one is my favorite at night. I'll have to get a pic of it sometime. It's really beautiful all lit up.




The most amazing sunset I've ever seen was while we were in Austin. This picture does it no justice. The sky was on fire, the clouds silhouetted in blazing orange were unlike anything I had ever seen.




Austin is an awesome place for people watching.It's a city with a fascinating mix of culture and fashion. During our six week stay we rented out a house on the east side. We were told the east side is the "bad side" of town. For us, after having lived in Baltimore, the east side of Austin is just fine. If anything it was more colorful (literally, like buildings everywhere painted bright blues, yellows and pinks) and eclectic than the rest of the city. We spent lots of time downtown and in the suburbs too, exploring and getting a feel for where we might want to settle. Yep, Austin is a pretty cool city.


I mean, where else can you find Mickey Mouse lighting up a cigarette?

Oh yeah. Maybe Portland.

I've been there too. I have to say Austin wins though. More sunshine you know.