【少年錦時】Catching Dragonflies

One day, when I was walking on a path along a nearby brook, a beautifull dragonfly came into my sight. It stopped on a low shrub with black and white spots presenting on its wings.

I bent my body, moving slowly and carefully towords the dragonfly, trying to catch it.  Suddenly it took flight and sped away.

I failed to  catch the dragonfly. But it reminded me of the happy time  of catching dragonflies when I was a child in China. At that time, there was no internet, no TV, no cellphone, no toy, even no book to read. Catching alll kind of insects and playing with them were one of the games we spending our time on. Catching Dragonflies was the one I like most.

There was a small river near the old house where I grown up.  Back those days, the water in the river  was very clean. In the shallow area we could see the rock, small fishes and tadpoles under the water. There were trees, bushes, lush grasses and  wild flowers growing on the bank of the river. This was our play ground, especially in Summer. Birds, butterflies and dragonflies were also  like to be there,  dining on nectar, lying their eggs and sipping the fresh water. 

I remembered there were so many dragonflies  in Summber, with different colors. Adult dragonflies had  a pair of large, multifaceted compound eyes, two pairs of strong, transparent wings, sometimes with coloured patches, and an elongated body. Some stopped  on some things, some flied in the air. 

The beaufiful Dragonflies were so pleasant  to look at and were safe to play with. That was why many of us, boys or girls,  liked catching dragonflies.  Even though these swift insects liked to hove, dart, and change directions quickly, it was not too hard to catch! It might take a fews tried to catch one. In order to increase the  chances of catching a dragonfly, we made  some man-made tools. 

One of the tools was a long-handled aerial net with a wide opening. We held the handle with one or both hands  and swinged it  to collect the dragonflies inside the net.

The other tool was made by bending a finger-wide strip to form a circle, tieing the two end to a long bamboo pole. Then we carried the bambbo pole to the corner of the houses to collect the spider silk to cover the circle which was use as a sticky nets to catch the dragonflies.

What  did we do with the catched dragonflies? 

Sometime, we put the dragonflies into a glass jar with a few small holes in the lid, just to watch them. Sometime, we used a string to tie its tail and let it fly (it sounds so cruel now).

Nowaday , there are not many dragonflies anymore due to the change of climate and the damage of environement. The scene of  large amount  of dragonflies flying in the air  can only exist in my memory.