Back in the summer of 2018, a post was entered by someone
whose home had a 'bush cricket' come inside
that had to be gently removed and taken back outside.
I had no idea what a 'bush cricket' was.

Yesterday I saw my first bush cricket,
or so I am told that's what it was.
This from one of the kitchen staff where I am staying.
The staffperson has a smartphone with a camera, and snapped a photo of the insect,
then looked it up, and reported to the rest of us
that it was a bush cricket.
I would never have attached the word 'cricket' to this thing.


It's a pale green color and its body
is shaped like a leaf on a bush: brilliant camouflage.
Then its three pairs of legs are like something
from a daddy-long-legs spider,
these LONG skinny bent appendages.

For whatever reason, this beastie left the bushes
and positioned itself on the railing for the
wheelchair-access ramp to the front door of the residence.
Just sat there on top of the railing where anyone could see it.

We all came creeping over to it and exclaiming over it,
pointing at it, hunching down to look closer at it.
I thought it might try to get away.
It just sat there.

I have never seen anything quite like it in real life,
it reminds me of nature films that show exotic creatures.

Nobody touched it and I guess it went back to where it came from.