Happy New Year!

Happy New Year -- I hope 2014 was a good year for you, and that 2015 holds exciting prospects! At least I hope your prospects are better than this fellow's:

Hopefully you've remembered that photos of desiccated mantises mean that I've fired up my wood stove for the first time. For some reason, mantises are attracted to the stovepipe at the top of my chimney, traveling down the dark tube, ending up in the firebox.

***

Last year I found a mature female, and once an egg case, but this year it's a much younger one -- probably got trapped in July or so based on its size...

You know how some blooms keep their color after they've been dried?

It's interesting that some insects do too.


Thanks so much for reading this past year! I'm hoping to try a few new things here in 2015 -- more on that once my ideas crystalize a bit more.

Back to normal daily posting next week. Coming up: another book review, a look at central Illinois, my favorite photos of 2014, and plenty more of course.

.