Rules

Anyone who really knows me could tell you that I am not especially good at following rules. It's not a lack of impulse control, it's a... shall we say creative view about how things should be done sometimes. Or maybe I just think some rules are stupid. Anyway, the one thing I am pretty good at is following rules I have made up myself.

When I started doing Backyard Bug of the Day two years ago on my facebook page, I made up (on the fly) some rules for how I was going to do it. The rules were that the pictures had to be taken somewhere on my property, though not necessarily in the backyard. So they could be from the front yard, or even in the house (because bugs get in there sometimes). The picture had to be taken by me (that rule was never an issue - who else would be out there taking pictures of bugs? Though I did, on occasion, feature a Guest Bug of the Day when friends would send me pictures of the bugs in their yards). The picture also had to be taken on the day I featured it as Backyard Bug of the Day. I couldn't take a picture and then use it the next day. The hardest rule was that any given bug was only supposed to be Backyard Bug of the Day once.

That rule I broke a few times. Mostly it was accidental - in the second year I would feature a bug and then figure out that it had been BBotD one day the previous summer. Believe me, it gets hard to remember what you've seen, what you've chosen - not every bug I see, or even get a good picture of - ends up as BBotD. A couple of times I broke the rule on purpose - generally if I got a better picture of a bug, or if I found one in a different stage of life. And things like dragonflies, where there are so many kinds, it was always hard to tell if I had used one or not.

This year, before I started this blog, I had decided to throw out that last rule, because I didn't think there was much chance I would find ANYTHING new this year, which meant that most days I would not be able to post a BBotD, and as hard as it may be for some people to believe, there are some people who would be disappointed. So, I relaxed that rule, and can use bugs that have appeared as BBotD in other years (last year I would post repeat bugs as Backyard Bug All-Stars). I am still trying not to feature the same bug twice in the same year, but on this blog at least, it's all new (and I had been finding bugs for at least a month this spring before I started the blog. Very disorganized of me). So, that's the deal with the Rules. I mostly follow them. We'll see how long I can keep finding new bugs - most days this year I have been able to find things I have never seen before, which is amazing in the third summer of doing this.

I hope anyone who has been following this blog is enjoying the amazing variety of bugs as much as I have (well, probably not. But I hope you've been enjoying it).

Having said all that, here's today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

This bug was featured as BBotD way at the beginning of the project. It was kind an obsession for a while to try to get a really good picture of one. They don't sit still very often. This one was fairly obliging. I have looked up the name of it before, but I can't remember what it is, other than a kind of fly. I have seen several different colors of basically this same thing, which I assume are different species (if that is the right classification).

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Toad flax. This is one of the flowers that has a name that I wish I knew the story behind, but don't feel like looking up. I have no idea what this has to do with toads... Also, I may be breaking the rule about pictures having to be taken on my property, because this was growing out of a crack between the curb and the street in front of my house. So be it.

No Daily Dandelion again, but in case you're going through withdrawal, maybe another bit of fluff seed will help?

There's not a great chance that I will feature a ladybug as BBotD, because they are hard to photograph, and kind of ordinary, but I might some day if I can't find anything else, or get an amazing picture. In the meantime, here's a ladybug as a Bonus Bug:

This was an unusual ladybug in that it mostly just sat there and let me take its picture. It waved its front legs a bit, but was, for a ladybug, very still. Unfortunately, the branch it was on was NOT, so it was still hard to get a picture, but at least the bug was cooperative. Of course, if I had moved in for a closer shot, that might not have been the case, but at least I got something.

Now, in the category of things I think are funny that my husband doesn't see quite the same way:

The back porch is on the northish side of the house. It gets very little sun. Under the back porch gets no sun at all. And yet, this plant grows under there and up through the porch. I don't know what would ultimately come of it if it had a chance to keep growing, because it's right in front of the door, so eventually it gets broken. But I still think it's hysterical. Life finds a way.

Speaking of things right in front of the back door:

That's where this little critter was dangling this afternoon. It was there for quite a while.

And since we're looking at caterpillars...

There are more iris blooming in the yard, transplants from my neighbor:

I think I saw a red bee today. I didn't get a close look, much less a picture, but I think that's what I saw. Bees are the subject of another assumption I made before I started really looking at bugs, which is that bees are black and yellow. True, many bees ARE black and yellow. But some are just black, or black and white...

And sometimes they're green.

This... there is nothing I can say about (Grammatically, that is an appalling sentence, but I am not going to do anything about it):

Grape leaves.

It's amazing how often I spot a bug, and when I go in for a closer look, I see it is two bugs.

 How about a change of pace from living things? Maybe a mineral?

Mica

I took several backyard walks today and here is my internal monologue about the next picture, which I took early in the evening when it was starting to get dark:
"Hey, the smudge on the bark of that tree looks just like a mo... oh."

 In my defense, this is not the direction I approached the tree from, so I didn't see the whole moth at first; I saw it from the side.

I've been sort of alternating plants and bugs today, but I am out of plants, so all that's left is Arachnid Appreciation. The first one was a tiny, adorable spider, but the picture is a real close up, so it doesn't look tiny, and up close is a little bit on the creepy side. You've been warned:
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This picture shows two spiders on one web. Even though they don't look the same in coloring or size, I think these might be male and female of the same species.

By the way, I think you ought to know - taking garlic pills does NOT protect from tick bites.