Hello There

Hello Backyard Bug Fans! I am sorry to have left you in a lurch, but it was unavoidable. Remember how I was sick for a while? Well, I was sicker than I thought, and I just got out of the hospital. I have been involuntarily absent from my backyard for the last 12 days. I missed it so much! It was very hard for me to have my only contact with the world of beautiful, little, living things be through a window. I saw some bugs from that vantage point (and posted a few blurry Hospital Bugs of the Day on facebook, even though I couldn't blog), which was nice to see, but it is not the way I want to experience nature, as you know if you have been reading this blog. I keep telling you to go outside, and you know that's what I like to do.

My wonderful friends helped to bring nature to me by posting pictures on facebook of Get Well Bugs of the Day, and it was a wonderful gift to me. Some friends found pictures of phenomenal bugs on the internet, and some took pictures themselves for me. One friend went out to try to find some bugs for me one afternoon and though the bugs were too shy to pose for her, she did manage to find some other pretty things; flowers, leaves, trees, just the general loveliness of nature, and, as she pointed out, all within 50 feet of her house. And that, right there, is what I have been trying to convey all along. There is incredible beauty all around, and you can find it if you just look. It might be tiny, it might be something you have walked past a million times and just didn't notice, but this is a beautiful world. So go outside, enjoy the loveliness, and find out what's within fifty feet of your house.

So, having said that, yes, I did do a bug walk today, of sorts. I had some major surgery, so I wasn't up to much of a walk, especially carrying my camera (which is heavier than I remember), and I can really only take pictures of bugs around my eye level because of mobility issues, so I don't have much for you. And I am not even going to try a bug walk in the next few days - this is not an announcement that I am back, just an explanation for not having shared any bugs with you lately (I really wish my last blog before this incident had been a better one...). And a promise to come back when I can. For now, though, I can't do this well, and if that is the case, I think it is best to wait until I can (provided I was doing it well in the first place... hmmm...).

In the meantime, go outside and look around.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This tiny katydid was waiting for me on the front porch when I got home.

Many Random Bugs greeted me on my return to the backyard (Yes, I am anthropomorphizing), but not many would pose for me:

 Candy striped leaf hopper

 Leaf hopper nymph

 One of those huge bumblebees

 Long-legged fly

P.S. I had some Sky Time tonight, and the choral cacophany of insect sounds is like I have never heard. It's wonderful to be home to my backyard.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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