Mating Dragonflies

My colleague and I have taken to going out for a longish walk around the university hospital grounds, which borders on a large expanse of woods and fields. Even though we are not talking wilderness here, we are nevertheless often faced with situations that my colleague, a Big City Gal, finds difficult to face with nonchalance. She just doesn’t like things like big dogs wandering around loose, slippery muddy pathways, creepy crawly things that fall down from trees, etc.

We were walking today when, all of a sudden, my colleague points to something in the distance, which was suspended in the air, and looked a bit like a miniature spaceship trying desperately to manoeuvre forward with a broken rudder. She was understandably disconcerted to establish whether this was animal, plant, or mineral in origin.

I established that the flying apparition was a pair of mating dragonflies. So, we watched with fascination as the dragonflies danced/flew slowly towards us. I modestly looked aside as they continued their mating ritual when they came in our vicinity. A silly thing to do, for just as they were passing us, their throws of passion made it almost impossible for them to continue their flight and they began dropping altitude: dangerously in the direction of our heads. The two of us ended up swaying back and forth out of the way of the dragonflies. I yelled, “Concentrate, mon!” at the copulating pair and rushed around to get out of their way.