All Creatures Great and Small

One of the changes I've made this summer is more frequent use of my clothesline (it extends from the garage wall to a nearby tree). It has helped that the weather has been so cooperative, but even on cloudy days I've been drying, for the most part, outside. I acquired an old metal table from my girls a month ago - one that my mother used to use to fold her clothes - and Tom put it outside for me so I had a place to fold and didn't have to bend down so much.


The other day I went outside and dumped a big pile of wet clothes on the table so I could hang them up, and I found this nice grasshopper in the middle of the table, apparently unperturbed by the wet mass next to him because he never moved. At first I thought he might be dead, but I bent down to introduce myself and his little antennae twitched. Hmm. Anyway, I continued making conversation and folding piles all around him, and the little bugger (sorry) simply stayed put.

I took a close-up of him in case any of you think I might be mistaken as to his species - I'm not an insect person. Let me know, because I believe in truth in blogs.

By the way, he did eventually leave after I did - no more of the stimulating conversation, I suppose. But isn't it nice to be able to do laundry on a beautiful day surrounded by flowers and friendly insects?