Headbangers are at it again, and again a dilemna

Richard's first selection for a theme is "Through the Window" and if I recall his suggestion is that we take a picture this week through a window if possible, but also could comb our files for a good one.

I am torn.

I have a great selection of window photos from far and wide to choose from in the files, and here are some in no particular order.

Seen while traveling in India

Through a visitor center window at Arches National Park

Another visitor center window view--this one at Mt. Rainier

So which Edinburgh Castle window? This one?
 

Or this?

Off to Ullapool, Scotland

How about old glass at Lincoln Cathedral

Westminster Cathedral seen broken in sections in the window opposite

A Scotty's Castle window view, reflected, in Death Valley



a Kremlin window view.

The other day my husband came home from town and called out as he opened the door, "Come bring your camera. See what came home with me." He thought it was a strange creature, but it is the right season for preying mantises to crop up anywhere and I have preying mantis shots from years before. So I popped inside the car to take the picture through the window. A different view to be sure. Definitely not the best of my window shots, but I like the fact that it was through the window RIGHT NOW, and so will use it for my header. I'm a renegade.

 

Now let me tell you a couple of preying mantis stories from my days teaching first grade. We usually had a pet preying mantis in a tank in the classroom. The kids would go out with a butterfly net during recess to catch grasshoppers to feed them. The kids knew the drill, and they loved having the strange little guys as part of the family.

 

Adults had some strange encounters with our pets, though. For one, they are misunderstood critters, so, not realizing that in captivity they are cannibalistic, it happened more than once that a well-meaning member of staff gave our pet a friend during the weekend or while cleaning the classroom, only to stare in horror when they mentioned it to me and I had to tell them that our dear pet had eaten the new roommate. (Or vice versa--never quite sure.)

 

The best story, though, was parent open house. The kids had gathered a great jar of grasshoppers during the day. The parents had sat through the boring meeting in the gym and were now in the classrooms where we were to tell them about curriculum, class rules and all that stuff. Just before the group arrived in my classroom, I dropped half a dozen grasshoppers into the tank. As the parents were gathered to hear a bit about what first grade was about, one who was near the tank let out a cry. I don't recall the exact words--it has been years--but the result was all the parents in the room gathered around the take to watch the preying mantis, with one grasshopper under each arm, munching first one grasshopper head then the other.

 

They were mesmerized. And I didn't have to give a boring speech about curriculum.