INSTEAD OF WHERE'S WALDO?

...I play, Where's Grasshopper? We've had a couple really humungous grasshoppers living in the flowerbeds. One apparently really enjoys munching on the Siberian Iris leaves and lives amongst them. The other lives on the other side of the same porch side, and a smaller one was in the inkberry bush although much smaller and browner.
Every time I go out on the porch, I play, Where's Grasshopper? They can camouflage rather well but I've been perceptive enough to usually find them. Yesterday morning, the big green/brown grasshopper was masquerading as an Iris pod by clinging upside down right alongside two Iris seed pods. It looked just like a seed pod unless you really looked closely. I've seen her munch with her big, wide mouth the Iris leaves. She has hopped on the inukshuk I made in the flowerbed to warm herself on the sun baked stone.
The smaller brown grasshopper had one leg caught in the spider web on the front of the house on the vinyl siding. He did manage to extricate himself and won a second chance at life instead of being sucked dry by a spider.
The bees and the butterflies are always stopping by gathering pollen or nectar. And the garden spider by the inukshuk gathered a Japanese beetle in her web and was busy wrapping it so it couldn't escape.
The house spider in the corner by the dining room window has caught; an unfortunate lightening bug, a moth, a mayfly, another bug, a Japanese beetle I stomped on and promptly put in her web ( with a leaf), and a very green grasshopper that when she was done with it was as flat as any leaf.
Wednesday night late, before going to bed, LH and I stepped out on the porch. All was dark and quiet. Everyone had lights out and gone to bed. The street lights shone their peachy hue onto the street and there we saw the calico cat that wanders the neighborhood and has had the audacity to stroll through our backyard despite the fence and two greyhounds who would love to chase it if given the opportunity. She was stalking something and chased back and forth across the street from curb to curb, and up and down. It looked like a mouse. It was rather amusing to watch. She eventually did catch it and took it onto the lawn across the street, probably for a bit more play.
Late at night, when all the neighbors were fast asleep, we watched the drama played out in the street.
We never know all the life that is around us, unless we spend time watching and looking. There is a whole world out there that we often simply rush by, overlook, don't see, because we don't take the time. I'm grateful to have the time to see all the life that is part and parcel of our little corner of the world. There is always more around us than we ever see. And it is all part of the wonder of God's creation.
I look forward to playing, Where's Grasshopper?, for a few more weeks!