Some weird things about bugs

What do you know about the Praying Mantis??

Well first off........its green (but can come in other colours) it waits very patiently and looks like its "Praying" hence the name I suppose and it likes to eat "LIVE" prey.

We placed in a few dead flies but he/she just wasn't interested.............and while we are on the subject of he and she the male cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body......Ah?

The female initiates sex by ripping the males head off........now although fascinating in nature-y type of way.......come on that's just wrong!

"Hi honey I'm home..........what the???"

Anyhoo this one is the South African breed which has been here in NZ since the 80's and Mana was just so into it.

After a long day of catching flies (You try swatting flies but not squishing them)

Kosuke and I went out for a quick surf 4-5ft SW swell and 20knot onshore it wasn't pretty but Oneils beach was the only place and I was getting desperate.

Ive had my new ride for nearly a month and only been out on it 3 times in on very small 1-2ft waves (so its still looking disgustingly "NEW" and LEARNER-ish) so I was keen to try it out on something bigger........bigger was an understatement.....it was a typical WILD West coast........but I'm happy to report that my board.....and me both survived.

As I said it was a quick surf and as the sun started to disappear and the darkness pretty well took over I was home for the scheduled time of 1745 (Ok so it was a few minutes later than that but pretty dam close)

We all piled into the car to drive to our favorite eatery "Golden Silk Thai Restaurant" in Kumeu were we planned to met up with Jenny and her sister Regina.

Jenny works for Zespri International and I have been driving for them over the last couple of months so it was quite cool to meet and catch up away from the job.....and the fresh homegrown tomatoes plus the yummy Zespri Gold kiwifruit were well received thank you.

As usual when it comes to that place all thoughts of taking photos went right out the window and I as soon as I took a photo of my dish of "Tender beef slices and veggies sizzling on a hot plate in a special garlic sauce huger got the better of me and I couldn't really tell you what everyone else had........I just know that it was sooooooo good.

Mana drew her a thank you picture and its on her way by snail mail as we speak.

What would you do.....?

OK so its 9c and I'm up at the crack of dawn.

Amped out of my mind at the thought of trying my new surfboard on some of the Bay of Plenty's waves

I prepared everything for a morning surf the night before only to discover that the predicted swell has not arrived......Hmmmmmm

Question-What do you do?

Answer- Absolutely NOTHING!

Fruit for the Whanau

Woohoo that's how I feel.
After 3 years of carefully pruning, fertilizing (is that a word?) watering, TLC......Hell even talking to them, my Fejoia tree has "finally"come up with the "GOODS"........and to top it all off the Mandarins,Lemons and Grapefruits are all coming to the party as well.

Now its not enough to feed the world,but it is just enough to give my whanau a wee (note wee) taste.
Special thanks again to Carrol G for explaining the value of "Cross pollination" for fejoi trees (Gees sounds like a Oscar award speech) and to Bob up the road for giving me some fertilizer and general tips.