There you are!

Yesterday I could not find Miss Thing in the garden and wondered if she'd managed to lumber away or perhaps been eaten by something.  So when I was pottering around in a patch of milkweed this morning, looking for "ripe" seed heads, it was a bit of a shock when I saw her staring at me.  Mantids have an unsettling ability to swivel their head to track movement so as I moved, so did her head.  And it's uncanny how well they blend into their surroundings.  Her body is the exact shape and size of the milkweed seed pods and she had arranged herself in perfect alignment.  I wonder how many times I might have looked right past her.  Have a look at the image in Extra to get an idea of how well she blends.

Anyway, she's a non-native species, a Chinese Praying Mantis that was accidentally introduced in the US (in Pennsylvania) in 1896 and has since been intentionally sold as pest control to farmers.  Because they are indiscriminate predators, their value as pest control is questionable.  On the other hand, they have naturalized here and are not considered invasive.  

The females (and this is a female) can reach up to 5 inches in length.  This gal is probably 3 inches.  I cannot tell if she has mated but if she has, or does, I may find her egg case (ootheca) in the garden.  And that would be fun.  In the meantime, because she'll pretty much eat anything, I removed a large monarch caterpillar from a nearby milkweed leaf and put it in one of my containers.  Chances are 50/50 that something has already laid an egg in the cat, but just in case...

Another pretty good day pain-wise.  When I was driving home from dropping Jax off at his weekly day care date, I ran into our neighbor who also has RA.  It is good to talk to someone else about it.  He's about 3 years ahead of me in terms of diagnosis but still has random flares.  Last night I intentionally ate a beef burger and potatoes (two inflammatory foods) just to see if it would impact my pain level.  I can't honestly say that it made a difference.  I will continue to experiment with food and see if there are things that help or hurt.  There does not seem to be any real empirical evidence that diet affects RA, but there is anecdotal evidence suggesting it does, at least for some people.  

It's gorgeous outside today and I hope to get out later and enjoy a bit of the weather.  This morning, I needed to do some housecleaning in preparation for my besties coming out for a visit this weekend.  

Dark with salted caramel today.

xo
Debbi