Optimism

Nature is an optimist.

 Years ago, before I started paying attention, I thought that buds formed on trees in the spring. Now I know that at least on some trees, the buds for leaves and flowers are there in the fall, all ready for spring, which is months away. And after spending the summer blooming, flowers are releasing their seeds, sending them off to find someplace to grow next year, after the snows and the cold. Nature is ready, and already waiting, to burst back to life. And yet, for a lot of seeds, winter is necessary. If they don't go through that cold period, they won't grow. There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere, but at the moment, I do not want to be like those seeds, just because I am not ready for the cold. It was bleak today, dark, and cold, and forbidding. It didn't even rain like yesterday (rain all day for less than a half an inch? That is not really worth the gloom), it was just miserable. More like December than November. But while I was out in that drear looking for bugs, I couldn't help but see the hope that is there in the form of buds and seeds. The trees know that spring will come.

Having said that, here is a complete inventory of the bugs I saw today. Two ants. About 8 or 9 March flies, all flying, so I didn't get pictures of them (even to get bad pictures like I get of them flying, you really need sunshine), one tiny blur of a thing flying, and today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Which is a fly. I wasn't even going to have a Backyard Bug of the Day, because it's just a fly, but then I decided that hey, it was there, it is a survivor, braver than most of the other bugs today, so let it be the BBotD. Plus, it's kind of cool looking.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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For a while I thought that this spider was going to be the only thing on the blog today. I saw it almost as soon as I walked outside. I thought it was a tick at first, which is something I definitely do NOT appreciate, as you know. But then I saw that it was a cool spider.