Seen on Today's Travels

At top left is Jesse's current favorite toy, a plastic preying mantis that he dug out of the children's toy shelf in my studio.  He has been batting it around all day, tossing it into the air with his lips.  He seems to think that it's something he has killed or stunned, and he's trying to get it to give chase, but of course no luck.  Late this afternoon he left the mantis on the porch floor and settled down for a nap on the table by the back railing.  On the right side of the left hand page is a drawing that I made while stopped at a railroad crossing this morning.  I had time to draw only half of the truck that was two cars ahead of me.  It was full of cleaning and gardening supplies and tools. 

On the right at the top is a real treasure.  The other day I was talking on the phone to my friend L while walking in the woods, and a gnat flew into my mouth and right down my throat.  I never could get it out, and after a lot of water it seemed to have slid down, and I guess all was well as I had no  ill effects.  I told L that I had just swallowed a bug, and yesterday when she came over she brought me a gift-- a bug-chasing hat from Mali!  I put it on the stone ram in the front yard to draw it.  You can see three of the four dangling tassels that bobble around when the wearer walks. 

After drawing the cap. I put it on and test drove it on the Jones Mountain trail, which is clouded with gnats these days.  I can honestly say I had NO trouble with any insects.  I walked with a man who lives at the top of the mountain for part of the hike, and he told me the gnats were driving him crazy, and he was wearing herbal bug spray.  So we concluded the cap did the trick.  It's made of white linen so it's fairly cool to wear (it doesn't LOOK cool, just feels cool).  I had thought the tassel bobbing in front of my nose might be irritating, but it wasn't at all.  Much less irritating than a cloud of gnats getting into my teeth!

And at the bottom, some pretty pipsisewa blooms.