Yesterday afternoon when I noticed that three of the hummingbird feeders were empty, I decided to refill them before I started cooking dinner. As I entered the kitchen with the three feeders, two in my right hand, one in the left, I felt a soft tickle and looked to see some bright green leaves on the back of my left hand. I quickly realized that the leaves were moving and that it was a large Praying Mantis not leaves. The Carol of the past would have shrieked and shaken it off her hand and run out of the room. Well, I must admit I let out a loud epithet and I did shake it off my hand onto the kitchen floor but the Carol of today didn’t run out of the room. Since there was no one else around to deal with the situation, I took a deep breath, put on my big girl pants, got a glass out of the cupboard and placed it on top of the Praying Mantis. Then I scooped it up with a piece of mail laying nearby and calmly walked out to the patio and dropped it onto a lavender plant. It stayed there, cleaning its antennae and its feet. I already had my 105 macro lens on the camera so I took a few shots. He looks like his prayers were answered.