Hey!!! Watch your step!

 With the old dog, Mr. PJ, being down in his hips, our hikes about the hillside are a mite slow these days.  I don't mind as I am a mite slow myself with the hurt knee.  He and I both hobble and bobble but we get where we are going all the same.  There is one thing good about these snail-paced hikes, I have plenty of time to look at things along the way.

  This afternoon, I was almost mesmerized by a cow-killer ant.  She scurried about the ground hunting for the perfect spot to dig.  This wasp (yes, not an ant at all) was trying to find a bumblebee nest so she could lay her eggs.  Her little parasitic babies would hatch and feed upon the bee babies.  Not fun for the bumblebees but with all of her hustle and bustle about the place, I had an entertaining ten minutes.  

  A few steps further and I literally almost stepped on my next find.  A pond hawk blended so well with the green grass that I almost did not see him in time.  Feeling terrible that I almost murdered a dragonfly, I had to apologize and stop to admire his beauty.

  It occurred to me that for the past few months, I have been running helter-skelter and not really seeing anything around me.  This moseying might be just what I needed.  So, I started really looking at what was underfoot.  Ants, centipedes, grass spiders, beetles and some weird looking bug that sort of glared at me were all within a ten foot circle.  I enjoyed my mini yard safari!   All the while, Mr. PJ sat and stared into the woods.  He does that a lot lately.  The bugs did not interest him in the least.