It Was a Dark and Stormy Afternoon

Actually, it's not stormy - yet - but dark and very windy. Not conducive the macro photography. It was misting a little too, so definitely a day to get the photos I needed and go inside, rather than take a leisurely walk with my camera. Plus, I have some time constraints today, and have to get this post done in the afternoon, so not much chance to find something else.

I did find a nice Backyard Bug of the Day:

Though what precisely I mean by "nice" I couldn't tell you.

There were a lot of these bugs, each sitting still and separate on the plants in front of the house:

(The milkweed are coming along nicely)

It's getting harder to find buds - as new things bloom all summer there will be more, but I think there will be lulls.
But I've got some for you. Backyard Bud of the Day:

Sigh... stupid wind...

How about a closer look?

Given the state of the weather, it's kind of a miracle I got a Daily Dandelion like this:

It looks like I am not the only one who doesn't want to be outside in all of this wind and foreboding:

I found this little bugger on the inside of the storm door when I went out to get the mail. It disappeared when I wen to put my camera down after taking its picture, so I don't know where it ended up. I don't blame it for not wanting to be outside, but... I don't want it inside!

I do like this picture of it, though:

Well, this picture of its reflection.

The sawfly larvae seem to have had a sudden growth spurt, and were acting kind of feisty, so I tried to get some video for you, but naturally as soon as I went in and got the camera they decided they just wanted to lie around. And then it started raining (It stopped two seconds after I went in the house, of course). But you get a few seconds of creepy critters, and you can hear the wind...
Click Here to see Sawfly Larvae Lazing About

Even if you are an arachnophobe, no need to worry about today's Arachnid Appreciation picture - it's all web, no spider:

One of my "Duh!" realizations I had when I started observing nature in my backyard (years before the macro lens, but within that decade) is that not all spiders build webs, and not all of the ones that do build the stereotypical web we all think of when we think of spiderwebs. Some of them seem to have no rhyme or reason at all - though this one does seem to have a skewed perspective drawing of a cube in the middle...

Blog done for the day. Bring on the rain. (Not that I am taunting nature here. I am just saying it can rain now without ruining my chances of getting bug pictures). Sigh. Never mind.