Changes

We think of the seasons changing four times a year: Winter to spring, spring to summer, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, but really the change is constant. One thing blooms, something hatches, on to the next blossom or birth. Things grow, grow, grow. There's always something new, and always time moves on from something that is finished. Or maybe it's more like when you are reading a book, and you just can't put it down, and you say, "When I finish this chapter I will go to bed," but at the end of the chapter you just check to see what happens at the beginning of the next chapter and... So, it just keeps going.

The clematis are ready to move on.

Saw many praying mantises, in different places in the yard, and different stages of development (i.e. - sizes).

 I think these are some that hatched yesterday.

And this one is bigger, and in the backyard. I think it is one that hatched a couple of weeks ago.

More developed, in the backyard.

And speaking of developing...

 I found another possibly morphing ladybug.

 Looks ladybuggish, but it still has the hairs in the back, and looks segmented.

 The front (I presume it's the front) looks quite ladybuggish, but not the right color.

This is the one that I have been seing the last couple of days. Still the hairs on the back, curling up tighter, but looking more segmented than that other one. So do the nymphs just retract inward?

 A couple more nymphs. This second one is less hairy, so maybe it is starting to change?

There are other bugs changing:

I think this grasshopper is getting ready to moult. I think that is why its skin looks so dull, and its eye looks clouded. Not that it had trouble seeing me... I hope when it moults it gets a new back leg, because this one seems to be missing a part. It is unusual for me to see a grasshopper this big so early in the summer.

Okay, one last morpher:

This one will do the full shebang metamorphosis. This is the caterpillar from a few days ago. This is the same leaf it was sitting on the last time I showed it to you. It nibbled a bit of the top of it, and then sat in this spot for the last 2 days. This evening it was sitting like this. I don't know what it's all about, but I know with monarch caterpillars they hang upside down, motionless, for about half a day before it chrysalizes, and at the least caterpillars just sit there for a while (though 2 days seems a long time) just before they shed their skin. So, either this caterpillar is ill, or it's about to do something interesting.

Ah, I haven't posted the Backyard Bug of the Day yet! Here it is:

Just kidding. This was on clearance at my grocery store, and I thought it was too funny to not have in my rock garden.

Here is the real Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This kind of looks like a leaf hopper, but it kind of doesn't. It could be a nymph of something...

Here's another bug, just for the heck of it. It will be BBotD some day, so I guess this is a preview:

And this... Well, I have no idea what is going on here:

 A weevil and a beetle.

Hey, I finally got a picture of a butterfly!

 Isn't it pretty? What, you don't see it? It's the yellow and white blur on the left.

Okay, yes, I got a better picture than that.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

I have no idea what this is, but I was happy to find it.

Here's a couple of blooms for you:

 Iris

Bedstraw

Backyard Bird of the Day:

This is the little bird that keeps startling me by bursting out of the wreath on the wall of the porch. My husband saw it sitting there when he got home this evening. It didn't fly out when he came up on the porch, and he just happened to look at the wreath and saw it there, watching him. He told me when he came in, and I went out with my camera - going out through the back door and walking around the side of the house, so I wouldn't startle it (and vice versa) by opening the front door. Sure enough, it was still there. Why it is hanging out wedged between the wall and the wreath I still don't know. After I took a couple of pictures it flew away.


Now for Arachnid Appreciation. I think one of these spiders probably ranks pretty high on the creepiness scale, so consider that your warning.
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Sorry if all of this was incomprehensible. So tired...