A Charming Surprise

I believe I have mentioned about a dozen times that I hate gardening. I love gardens, but I don't want to have anything to do with making them what they are. I do the bare minimum in my own yard, and that includes planting only perennials. People gush about planting annuals, because they supposedly bloom all season, but I'll take the short-blooming seasons of perennials that you don't have to replant every year. Except this year I made an exception, because I found a flower that I really, really loved, and I decided that just this once, this year, I would plant an annual, because I would then have these gorgeous flowers all summer long. I even dead-headed the spent blooms, because that is supposed to encourage more flower growth. Except it didn't. And the plant didn't bloom all summer, it only bloomed for a couple of weeks. I am kind of mad about this–if I am going to go to the trouble of digging holes in the ground and putting in plants that I paid good money for, I expect a decent return, either years and years of short blooming seasons, or in this case one glorious summer of gorgeous flowers. And I didn't get it. I harrumph at the plants when I walk by them, which I do every day, because they are planted along the front walk. But apparently when I am harrumphing I don't always look at them very closely, because today suddenly I found this:

 In full bloom. I didn't notice the bud, or even the interim blooming steps. This was a wonderful surprise when I went outside to get the mail today.

 The bees liked it, too. I did look for more buds, on this and the other plants, but didn't find any.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Basically, I didn't find much today. I think this is some kind of chrysalis, and chrysalides count as insects, so... here you go.

After having had a heat wave for the beginning of the week, the temperature today was about 20º cooler. The overnight low on Wednesday night was 73ºF, and last night it was 46ºF. Quite a drop. That may be why there were not many bugs out and about today.

Oh, and by the way, I am probably not going to be able to do a bug walk tomorrow, so there is probably not going to be a post tomorrow.

Other Bugs:

 Grasshopper

 Weevil

 Fly (I am never going to learn to identify flies, either by genera, genus, species... any of that).

There were still a good number of crane flies fluttering around:

 Big ones...

 ... and small ones.

And some that were propagating their species.

And I can hear a LOT of crickets, and even saw a couple:

 

 So uncooperative.

 Assassin bug with fly

Now THIS I find creepy.

 Ten legs is my threshold of creepiness. I am not sure if this is a millipede or a centipede–OF COURSE this one is not in my books (and yes, I know, it's not an insect, but the books do cover other arthropods).

And while we're on the subject of things people find creepy, do not look at this next picture if you have ophidiophobia (fear of snakes):
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It was watching me...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Daddy-long-legs

 Bowl and doily spider. I saw a bug bounce off the bottom of this web like an upside-down trampoline. Which I am aware would not work, but that's the analogy I'm going with.