after the bird seed fiasco this morning i was outside bringing in the bins after the central coast waste management collective had left them sprawling across the street. one has to be grateful they even emptied them, these days it's a 50/50 chance they will empty them at all or just leave them for another week. yeah the rates increase don't actually make a difference to the type of service the rate payer receives. anyway i'm lucky this week, they were emptied. 

as i reposition them and walk towards my front door i see a branch laying on my doormat.

i'd spend some chunk of the morning sweeping my front driveway, picking up debris and getting the entrance cleared so i'm not sure how this lone branch ended up there. as i approach my instincts start screaming, somethings not quite kosher about this. i look closely, the branch has several smaller branches perpendicular to it, they don't seem quite right. instincts screaming louder. 

then i see it for what it is.

a massive stick insect and what the fuck is it doing, eating bird seed outside my front door. my front door that's open. 

i'm okay with sharks, snakes, spider but these stick insects freak me, i have had run in with them before. they are not normal insects, these things are clever terrorists.

fortunately my afghan builders are here, and when i race into the garage asking for help they race out to look. neither has ever seen one before and obviously at first they think it's a stick. 

until it moves.

now fortunately near the door i also keep a big claw device i use to pick things up without having to bend down low, mostly i use it for the pond, removing stuff.  one of the boys grabs it and carefully picks the prehistoric insect up and takes it away across the road while i hide in the garage.

'you would never make it into the mujahideen,' he says as he walks passed.