look what katydid

just after posted the day’s blog yesterday i walked in the bedroom and found this giant cricket thing wandering about

on closer inspection it revealed itself to be a ‘katydid’  which is a new zealand bush cricket.  it’s common in gardens, eats foliage and, according to one website i read, ‘makes a feeble chirp in the evening’.

anyway, it caused such a kerfuffle with the olds that esther and kezia came through to investigate with their beetle spotting jars which have proved incredibly useful since moving in to this beastie ridden part of the world.   we did like this chap though.  even more so when we discovered he has ears by his front knees !

and in non-bug news it’s been a medical day.

jane went to the opticians which were very modern and very friendly.  she can reclaim about a third of her year’s contact lens costs from a medical thing i signed up to at work which is good.  she said she had a photo taken of the back of her eye and all is in order.

and esther went to the school dentist.  school kids get free checkups and work down, and all kids are seen in the course of a year i think.  there’s a dentist surgery actually at the school which is a good way of making it less scary.  All was well with esther too.

after school they went tennis-ing which was inside today because it’s been raining.

apologies in advance if family blogging is a little random the next day or two as i’ve got work things in the evening.  so don’t panic if there’s radio silence.

see yas