Pears Following By a Mantis

November 14 – There are such things as coincidences that make me wonder sometimes how I am connected to all of the bits and pieces that happen to me in just one day! I am going to mention just two of them that happened recently, and I think all of you may enjoy them, one that was a bit more than I enjoyed (no! NOT enjoyed)! The other involves another living thing, but it’s good that it t disappeared before I really knew what was happening.

So, off to the first. On a beautiful about two weeks ago, with a high of 7O, I decided to hang the washing outside, as the sun was so warm and bright that I had to wear sun glasses! Not bad for the end of October. After two loads of newly-washed towels, shirts, socks, and jackets, I checked on the cherry trees where I would be sawing off some of the larger branches left on the tree when I didn’t have time to finish with the job a couple days ago.

[ Fresh pears ]

On the way back to the house, I checked on the pear tree just inside the fence as I wanted to pick some of them before they fell off the tree. Not having a bucket with me, I had to use a makeshift one by pulling up my shirt just a bit so I could put a dozen pears in the homemade bucket.

Back to the house for breakfast, and then back to the pear tree. Since I couldn’t reach many of the pears, I had to pull down the branches I could reach, and hope to pick enough for some good eating later. Stretching as high as I could (I’m but a half inch taller than five feet) I walked around the tree and picked till I couldn’t reach any higher.

I had just about finished the job when I glanced up and saw just in front of me, but well over my head, four or five, good-looking pears! How in the world could I leave them behind? I then chose to move to a position right under those pears. Dumb mistake! Jumping a foot or so towards those pears and reaching as high as I could, I managed to make contact! Great, but the results were not as I had expected or hoped! (Right now, I am licking my upper lip, testing to see if it is still sore! Yes, it is!) So, now you can figure out the first little happening I am sharing with you! One of the largest pears along with three others came down from the tree all at once. I couldn’t believe that swelling could happen so soon. My poor top lip stayed sore for hours – but at least it didn’t bleed very much!

[ Peacock with ONE tail feather ]

Now for the second incident. Later that afternoon after I had finished cutting the branches off the cherry trees and carrying them back to the burning pile, made up of all kinds of bamboo, chestnut, apple, and many more,  I finished up the work that I had planned to do before going back into the house. I wanted to make sure that I was ready to listen to one of our favorite newsmen, Lester Holt, and think about what we would have for supper.

As usual the two peacocks were lying by the back porch in the bright sunshine. Talk about beautiful! Those gorgeous bright blue feathers don’t even look real! After I had fixed up macaroni and vegetables along with home-canned tomato juice, it was time to think of dessert. But first I had to go out to the garage to get some cat food for the peacocks (yes that’s right. Those birds enjoy many strange foods, like Cheerios and bread broken into smaller pieces.)

[ Small mantis about the size of the one on my shoe ]

As I was walking along the way, I looked down in the corner of the garage, and there was an unexpected insect! As I stopped and watched for a bit, a very small praying mantis slowly made its way up from the floor to my shoes, continuing on slowly, until it was hanging on to one of my shoe laces. I was sure that it just wanted to find a safe place, so I shook my leg, figuring that the mantis would fall off and quickly move away from the arena.

Good reason for that, because it would have to shuffle away quickly before its meeting with the peacocks! Sad to say, it was too young to know of the danger it was in. Why? Because it landed right in front of the peacocks. When the bigger one saw the mantis, it quickly grabbed it, bit off some of the body, and then ate what it had left before. And since I have always appreciated these insects as they do many good things, I wished I had left that small one walk down the driveway to escape the appetite of the peacocks! Why did I toss it over right in front of them? Truly, um, food for thought! – CHRIS