Okay, I haven’t been neglecting flyingwhimsy.com, I swear. I’ve just been focusing on writing things which I’d like to get published; which generally means it doesn’t go on here. I also got a little burned out on the anime reviews after watching the first season of Clannad: stupid alternate universe episode 24 hit a little too close to home for me. Also, I watched almost the entire series of Red Dwarf. Anyway, things are moving again and there’ll be some really fun stuff coming soon. In the meantime, here’s a pretty picture:

That would be Cedar Point waaay in the background.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
~Whim

On the way out to get some dinner with the family, I saw that one of the cocoons in our garden had finally hatched.  There’re between 6 and 10 of these cocoons scattered around, and we weren’t sure what they were from.  While we had fears of spiders or locusts (both of which I more or less discounted with wikipedia, but you know how reliable that can be), we were hoping it would be something cool.  Anyway, after month and months of waiting I just happened to look at the one on top of our rose bush to see a 8 tiny praying mantises hanging around it.  They were about a centimeter long and were still transparent.  The mama had been around four inches long, so it was quite the surprise to see just how tiny these things are when they emerge into the world.

I know the image is a little dark, but it couldn’t be helped because of the lighting and my camera; you can still make out the little things quite clearly.  By the time we got back from dinner, the mantises were already getter darker in color and were starting to move around more.

I wish those little things the best of luck, especially since we just had a frost last night.  I wonder if they’ll climb back into the cocoon for the night.

~Whim

PS - Haha, no need to worry about aphids if we have sixty praying mantises.