I Miss Raoul !!

I went out one sunny morning in July and there he was......hunkered down on one of my red pompom dahlias......... such a fine - looking wee "sauterelle "or grasshopper. I didn't think any more of him until I came out the following morning and found him still squatting on the same dahlia...????? The third morning I named him Raoul... pronounced with a long , drawn - out Texas drawl ! Wondering whether Raoul had simply landed there , liked the surroundings and view and pitched his tent OR had chosen that specific dahlia because of the colour....... sooo I grabbed him and set him gently on the neighbouring white dahlia named Sterling Silver ( my Dad's nickname for a big white dahlia ) , stepped back to see what Raoul would do .... if anything.

At first mio piccolo cavaletto... my wee horsie..... seemed dazed..... but within ten minutes he had flown back to the nearby red pompom dahlia.... but not to the same flower.. I grabbed him again and placed him on an adjacent cluster of green leaves. Five minutes later Raoul was back on his red dahlia.

About one week later I went out one morning and my pet grasshopper was nowhere to be found. Maybe Raoul had finally decided to break camp ..... when I looked across the lawn to the roof of my greenhouse and spotted a smiling robin.........and high above him three undertaker birds in a dead tamarack looking pretty smug......... ????????