Patterns and textures, critter version

It's critter season, finally! My camera is full of beasties, taken in and around my house. Out in the grass, as I work killing hawkweed, grasshoppers and spiders hop and scramble away from my vicious weed tool. In the evenings, the kittens practice their high jumps, trying to catch huge crane flies; mostly, they miss.*

And Sunday afternoon, in Oyster Bay, I chased another of those invisible grey grasshoppers across the sand. With each hop, he disappeared, and I searched until he saw me coming and leapt away again. I gave up, eventually.

This 'hopper was more forgiving.

Brown grasshopper on a rock face, Oyster Bay. Each body part, even the eyes, has its own pattern, from mottled, to striped, to stained glass, to herringbone, to the fern-leaf design on his head.

The snail had died and left his empty shell, pitted and bleached. I liked the texture.

He's more creamy than pink, but the colour bounces off my hand.

* I'm as bad as the kittens; I just abandoned this to stand on a dresser because a spider caught a fly on the ceiling above my desk. At least I don't try to eat the spiders, just take their photos.

Progress report.

The kittens are 6 weeks old. And getting sassy.

All eyes and ears.

And pretence of innocence.

They're drinking milk from their mother's bowl, spilling half of it. Attacking my feet when I sit down. Climbing on everything, knocking stuff onto the floor. Waiting until I go to bed to start playing tag around my pillow.

And then it's time to sleep.

One more month, and they'll be ready to leave their mother. Two already have homes waiting. Two to go. Want a kitten?

Progress report; toes, ears, eyes.

Chia's kittens are discovering their world:

Pink toes!

Tig knows she's supposed to be a tiger.

They still have their baby blue eyes; the colour should start to change in two or three weeks.  Last week, their ears were still flat forward, but now they're up and listening for their mother's voice. They are walking about, but are very unsteady, and the least little push from a littermate will roll them over.