This year the cicadas (stout-bodied insects related to the aphids and having wide blunt heads and large transparent wings) have been so plentiful. Around dusk when they are "singing" for a mate it can be difficult to carry on a conversation in our yard.
Edwina and I are fascinated by these insects -- they come up out of the ground where they hatched...shed a hard shell on things and then their flat, almost invisible wings fill out and they can fly! In a matter of minutes they are almost twice the size of the shell they left.
I'm not sure how much the metamorphosis fascinates Edwina as the noise they make! A cicada was between her front paws. Gently she put a paw on the cicada. Clack,clack,clack -- like a wind-up metal toy. She took her paw off. The noise stopped. Paw back on -- clack, clack, clack. She kept this up for a few minutes with a look of such concentration on her face. The cicada had the chance to leave but didn't. Finally the cicada walked along Edwina's leash which was lying in th grass next to her and launched into flight. Edwina watched its path into the trees.
And that Phred...is what we did on Labor Day!
