After the rain, an aloof mantis nymph
conducts the little restless midges.
 

Just found out my Wild Light blog has been included in the list
“50 Amazing Nature Photography Bloggers”,
a nice resource for some fine wildlife photography.
 

Here’s a young bandit hours after birth,
a praying mantis nymph caught up in some abandoned
spider webbing searching for tiny prey.
 

In the brilliant green microwilderness,
a lazy little fly plays tag with its
lazy little shadow.
 

Tag, you’re it.

A mayfly from a long forgotten spring,
in some species the adults live only a few minutes.
 

“the weavers of some cloth of gold,
Or the fine pistons of some bright machine.”
 

Less than a breath, almost nothing at all,
a young praying mantis is a ghostly insinuation
in the green world.
 

Yellow angel of the garden, hearts desire, lord and master of sunlight.
 

A honey bee comes in with a harvest of dark pollen, a small contribution to the distinctive flavor of the hive’s honey.
 

Minutes old and ready to hit the ground stalking, a tiny, skeeter-sized praying mantis surveys the leafy streets of a lush new world.
 

A patient praying mantis waits silently, a tiny backyard ghost, a new-born, skeeter-size bundle of hunger.

        Still mantis central here, I hope some will survive the perils of my backyard microwilderness.

        A mantis from last year crosses a dew-covered bridge below.

       My backyard microwilderness has been overrun by tiny praying mantids, hatching this week from their egg cases.

       Below is a mantis from last spring.

“Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
       In a cowslip’s bell I lie”

        With apologies to Ariel and Shakespeare.