A Confession...

I grew up in the middle of nowhere.  When I was a kid, there were no lights beyond our house.  There was an abandoned amusement park surrounded by woods so there was literally nothing in the direction one of my bedroom windows faced.  Nights I couldn't sleep, when there were no scary things stirring in the haunted house where I lived, I could lie in my bed and watch for falling stars.  I fell asleep to the sounds of nature, with an occasional train whistle echoing in the distance when the wind and mist were just right.

Needless to say, moving into the city changed all that.  It only took a few months to "destroy" my yard and replace the scruffy grass with flowers.  One thing I missed tremendously were spring violets.  So me, being me, went back to that original house and dug some to transplant.  Twenty-some odd years later there are violets all over the neighborhood.  A good thing as I see it.  Just because one lives in a dirty, downtrodden city it does not mean one must do without spring beauty.

I also got a Praying Mantis egg sack that first year and have seen many, many throughout the years, another very good thing.