Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Cat in Window

Published a cat-in-window picture from the recent cruise we took in New England.  They make pretty good subjects, but this one is a step up due to the serene atmosphere created by the furniture and foliage outside.

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Work Truck

This truck, just down the street from Allison and DeQuan, was loaded up like this every night for the next day's work with various items, always piled high.  Gotta hand it to 'em...

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Flower Sprays

Everything in nature has its beauty - bugs, snakes, trees, cacti, mammals, birds... everything.  In the flora world, however, nothing can beat natural sprays of flowers such as these.

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Praying Mantis / Fact Check Verification from a Valuable Contributor

Suppose these guys are found just about everywhere; pics here of some encountered in Taiwan and Japan.  This one was reposing on the front door of the kids' house there in Chandler.  They are pretty scary looking - even more so if you've seen them lightning-strike prey with those forearms.  And the way they cock their head up and swivel around to look at you seems a bit too personal...

It's in family lore that Bob, my oldest brother, when he was a little tyke, saw one on the handlebars of his tricycle and was terrified enough to scar him for life.  Will have to fact-check that one.

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FACT CHECK RESULT:  Bob responded with verification and so much more...

This is true and happened shortly after we moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in the summer of 1957 when I was five and before Jim was born.  I had no idea what was this giant ferocious bug that landed right in front of me on my trike, and I started screaming.  But what's not mentioned is that my friends and I later became enamored with praying mantises.  My best friend in Wilmington was Mike Farantino.  He and I would catch them in an adjacent vacant, overgrown field in Wilmington, and fly them like balsa wood airplanes.  They'd fly a distance and we'd catch them again.  One time we launched a praying mantis and it flew over our two-story apartment building (probably to get away), and we followed it in the air and went around and found it again.  You had to grab one behind the head because they could latch on to your finger and bite.  When launching you'd transfer your grip to under the thorax/wings and sort of gently throw it horizontally, and it would fly - sometimes pretty far.  We never harmed them and would release them when we were done playing.

In Jim's picture the praying mantis is green.  I don't know about Chinese insects but in Delaware they would change color from green to brown, and back, depending on the background.  I have seen them in Houston and Austin occasionally.  Here they seem to be mostly brown, although I know I have seen a green one in Texas too.

I attended a private Christian school in Wilmington (since closed) for grades one through three, and I started first grade at age five - kindergarten was not common them.  In second grade I took a praying mantis nest in a jar to class to show everyone.  Those nests look like a brown papery blob about half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter on a grass stalk or twig.  Fairly solid and somewhat crunchy.  Anyway, the thing hatched while I was there and somehow the jar lid came off (not my fault, I said and still say) and we had 50 tiny little mantises scurrying around the classroom all afternoon.  They come out very pale then turn dark brown, almost black, a couple of hours later.  The boys thought it was cool but our teacher and the girls in the class were not amuse.

Bob

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Palm Seed Pods

The seed pods on some sort of palm tree they have over there.  Koko ate some of these after they'd shriveled and fallen to the ground, which created a bit of a scare, but they turned out to be harmless.

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Ornamental Yard Cactus

Another bear of a cactus.  Had to be very careful with Koko on walks, as she would want to get close to sniff and identify these strange new plants.

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Prickly Pear Cactus

These grew everywhere where I lived down in Mexico ('80 & '81), and my friends there introduced me to the tunas, those red things that are actually quite tasty.  Unfortunately, they left me a little bit estreñido (you translate)...

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Disappearing Rain

One thing interesting about being in the high-and-dry desert is this phenomenon.  The sun is shining at an angle that allows us to see this rain falling from the could above.  It's pretty obvious that it's fallen about halfway to the ground.  I tried to trace its fall downward, but it didn't seem to change at all, even after the usual three minutes it takes rain to go from cloud to ground.  Why is this?  Well, as it turns out, it is so high and dry in the Sonoran desert that it never makes it all the way to the ground.  Yes, in some cases the rain evaporates completely before reaching terra firma.  Don't see that in Houston...

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Pima Park Willow Tree

 

Chandler Neighborhood Shots - Succulent from Above

Like pictures of plants taken from this perspective, which remind me of this post, a favorite from the Houston Zoo.