Round And Round And Round We Go...

So here we go again, changing from one platform to another as yet another blogging site potentially discontinues its services. This time it's Multiply, which in my opinion has by far the best toolset, best features, best privacy controls and best/easiest customization options of any similar site. However they have begun reducing their focus on the social networking and media sharing aspects of the site choosing instead to focus on e-commerce.

There's a new CEO now, and their corporate HQ is moving out of the US to Indonesia. I don't have much faith that things there will stay as they are for long so it's time to go out and test the waters. Multiply will be a hard act to follow, I don't expect to find another site which offers everything they do.

Attack Of The Mantid

Today was very traumatic. I was working in the garden when I was suddenly attacked by a vicious praying mantis. The thing was downright brutal! I saw it coming but couldn't do a thing to stop the ensuing carnage. I'm now mentally scarred for life, at the very least I'm sure to develop an acute case of mantiphobia. I'm grateful it was a baby, an inch long at best, had it been a full grown adult mantis I may not have survived! Fortunately my camera was within reach so I was able to document the attack. Now I can show you the evil monster.

There it is, plotting its brutal attack, moments before it threw me to the ground.

Surveying the carnage and its nearly unconscious victim.

A Robin's Nest

A pair of robins decided to build a nest in the climbing rose just outside my kitchen door. They are industrious little buggers, it took them all of 2 days to build the nest, flying back and forth all day long getting little twigs and pieces of plants.  It amazes me that they can build something so solid, which will last for a couple years, using nothing more than a beak.

It's been a couple weeks since they finished so I decided to have a look inside the nest to see what, if anything, was in there. Fortunately for me the nest is low enough that I can stand on a stool, reach up and fish the camera through the rose ending up in just the right position to photograph the nest and its content. I can't see what I'm photographing but after 5 or 6 shots I finally got a decent one. As you can see there are 4 pretty blue eggs waiting to hatch. I'm hoping the parents haven't been scared away by all the activity happening so close to their nest since they are just a few feet from my kitchen door. They probably aren't real fond of seeing Zeus laying in the window watching them either, lol.

I'll keep an eye on them to see if the eggs hatch and if the babies get fed. If they survive, they better learn how to say "Cheeeeeeese".