A Promise for the Garden

Last October, a praying mantis that was ready to lay eggs insisted on hanging out by a heavy metal basement door. Fearing disaster, I moved the praying mantis to a spot in the back yard. But then I never saw it again and thought maybe one of the feral cats on our block had caught it. On Friday, I decided to take a good look around and was pleased to find the egg case firmly attached to a twig on a forsythia bush. So next summer we will have mantids again in the garden.

--Bernice Paglia