Floral Defiance

I feel kind of unreliable when I go days without posting, but believe me, usually it is because there is nothing to post. If I can't get outside to look for bugs, or I go out and don't find any bugs, I don't really have much to say or show you. Yesterday and the day before, for example, were not buggy kind of days. They were this kind of day:

 I may be giving a false impression with this picture, though–it has not been snowing for two days straight. Let's just say there was a great deal of precipitation, and though it has warmed up enough to melt a great deal of that which came down in a frozen state, there is now snow covering most of the ground. The daffodils don't seem to mind, however.

 And the few creeping myrtle flowers that are blooming don't seem to care much, either. This one is not in the rock garden right by the house, but growing in the crack of a rock down by the street, and looking quite contented, if a flower can feel contented.

I really went out today (and yesterday, when the snow had stopped and the sun came out) to find snow fleas, which I failed to do, but I did find a few insects:

 A stonefly walking on the leaf litter of a woodland path where the snow had already melted by this afternoon. I have been seeing so many of these lately!

 And of course, a fly on the side of the house. It wasn't very warm or sunny, so there was only one. The rest obviously didn't think today was a nice enough day for basking.

 Aaaaaand the winter fireflies on their favorite tree.

On another tree, where a woodpecker has made some holes–I am not sure you can tell what's happening here, but each of these holes has a winter firefly inside, their back ends sticking out. I don't know if they are in there for the shelter, or to drink sap from the holes. I don't know what they eat.

We will continue to play hide-and-seek with spring for a while, with more snow possible in a few days. You don't often hear people in this part of the world say that the weather is boring. We might call it a lot of other unpleasant things, but never boring.