The Alphabet Challenge “M” Stories voting has stalled. The “M” stories, mired and morose and melancholy, sit waiting for kind readers to stop by and give them a chance to enthrall, or at least entertain.

. . . er . . . mired and morose and melancholy are not the story titles; it’s just their state of being.

If you’ve not already done so, you can help them out by reading the stories and then cast your vote for your favorite of the three. Links to the stories and the poll for voting for “Alphabet Challenge M-Stories” are HERE.<<<Link

OK, that’s that. And now . . . .

Last week, when I went out to sit outside, this is what I saw next to my chair. Yes, those are rocks, but, if you haven’t already guessed from the title of the post, that’s not what I’m referring to.

It was evening, with the light fading. Some of these were shot with high ISO values and “DeNoised” and some were shot with the on-camera flash.

By the way, you can click on the photos for a larger view, or you can see the full-size photos in the SmugMug Gallery HERE.<<<Link

That’s already a (roughly) 2X view of the scene, but let me get closer . . .

Yes, a mantis<<Link or — more colloquially known — a praying mantis. A young one, I presume from its diminutive size.

It’s sitting on some grass seeds . . . er . . . remnants of what used to be grass seeds from last year. I meant to photograph them before all the seeds blew away but . . . anyway, I left them there because I like the looks of them.

That’s a flash photo, as is this next one (don’t be fooled by the darker background, it was still light).

These next two are some of my favorite shots (yes, there are more; yes, there will be another post). The first is with the flash, the next one without.

I am impressed with how well Topaz DeNoise cleans up the photos. I’ll have to do another post reviewing how pleased I am with the program.

Anyway, that’s today’s reminder post. Here is a gallery of the above shots.

I know some (mighty few) people miss my long posts . . . but, since this is a short post, here’s a short(ish) offering,  THIS POST<<link is from 2015. It’s the story of how a hummingbird spent the night in our house.

Or, if you really pine for a long post, then THIS POST<<link is for you. Lots of macros I was considering for a contest.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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