The Gardener Tree

A friend of mine has lent me a phone until I can get a new one. So some of the newer photos, wont be as up to standard as they have been in the past. Still trying to work out the quirks of the camera mode.

This little guy scared the absolute bejimmenies out of me today. I was raking in the skate park and out of the corner of my eye I saw a bit of branch stuck on my shoulder. I thought it was a little strange a branch getting caught there as I hadnt been leaning against anything, but brushed at it and kept raking. Then two large legs appeared infront of my face. I thought I had somehow wound up with a big spider on me and let out, quite possibly, the girliest shriek I have ever made. I also realise now, that my first instinct was to duck. Which is a little bit silly as it was on my shoulder, so it wasnt like ducking was really going to help me much. When I realised that it was a 15cm long praying mantis, I was much relieved. The only way I can think of how he wound up on me was, I was raking out a garden bed and must have disturbed him. He must have thought my leg was the base of a nice big safe tree and proceeded to climb. I couldnt feel him climb as we have to wear long pants, so he proceeded to climb until he reached what he thought was the highest and safest place in the 'tree'. The biggest challenge for me was to figure out how to get him off me without hurting him as he crawled round to the back of my shoulder blade and batting him off would not have ended well. Eventually I just lent next to a big tree (a real tree, not another gardener) and after a couple of minutes he climbed onto the bark and began a journey to the canopy. Good luck mantis. Thanks for the memories.