Thursday September 9th
As the sun came up over the mountains this morning I decided my potted garden needed closer inspection as the calendar races towards the autumn. The bright red geraniums still have one or two flowers, but some leaves are beginning to turn a musty yellow and dominate the plants. I put my hand in to remove the dying leaves and found the largest insect I have ever seen. I don’t even know what to call it but it was long, perhaps more than two inches with four enormous hind legs, bent and curved and becoming stationery with my presence. I stopped immediately, leaving my hand in place, but not moving. It lifted its head that looked like a copy of early drawings we used to see when describing creatures that lived on other planets. My stillness allowed it to lift shorter front legs and rub its head and look around. It was exactly the color of the leaf it sat on; one would never have seen it under ordinary circumstances. Finally feeling no threat, it withdrew its many limbs and settled like a piece of thread blown by the wind, onto the surface of the leaf. The dead yellowing leaf was left in place, and I quietly withdrew my hand marveling at nature and how little I knew about it.
