May 5

During our weekly visit to our town's library, we somehow managed to spot this little mantis. I am always completely amazed when I see one of these creatures, and this one was impossibly tiny - he or she is sharing the photo with dandelion seeds, to give you some scale.  Those are clover leaves around him...

Here he races across a plantain leaf - he was so fast and nearly transparent!

Spring manages to fill me with this huge sense of awe every year.  Its regenerative powers are great on so many levels.

Tonight we took a walk to the garden, to see if there was any new growth after a few days of heavy rain.  The girls were so filled with contentment, to have us both with them, to have that gift of an evening glow...even after a day of running around, then sitting around, waiting for work to be done on our car (here's a secret:  we get more "schooly" type stuff done at the automechanic's shop than anywhere else.  I'm not sure why, other than we are stuck in one place with one bag of tricks for over an hour...)  (plus this place is great about letting us come back and watch if we want to, and are very pleasant about answering questions regarding cars, car parts, vending machines, and tattoos.) - we were all enjoying being out, together.

We are anticipating a month of wonderful starting tomorrow - one of our favorite people on the planet is coming to stay with us for a few weeks, and we are beside ourselves with excitement.  And we thought spring couldn't get any better...