jerry

The ground has been parched as summer has suddenly returned upon us.  I went out to water the garden and who did I scare out of the flowers but Jerry, the praying mantis. 

Jerry had not done any modeling before, but turned out to be a natural.  I offered him/her a part in my sketchbook project and we shot a number of different poses and angles for future reference.  Jerry has the amazing ability to move very, very slowly while hanging on to smooth, impossibly vertical surfaces with tiny feet that don't even have gripping toes.

Performing acrobatics on the manifold, Jerry told me the critter that had nibbled the edges of all those leaves was now "handled".  I didn't ask any further questions, but I did recall that I used to hear a cricket in the bush and hadn't heard its song for a couple evenings.

We hung out until Jerry began to look off into the distance, dreaming of greater things.  I guess that's how it is when one befriends a praying mantis.