Ice Garden

When I see this in my backyard:

 Needle ice. If I had a favorite kind of ice, this would probably be it. I love the way it grows out of the ground.

I don't expect to also see this:

Twice-stabbed lady beetle. Seriously, why are there beetles out when it is so cold? It had warmed up to 35ºF when I went outside at around 3:00. It had just broken the freezing mark at about 2:00. This does not seem like beetle weather...

No, wait, what am I talking about? Winter fireflies are beetles, must remember that. But even they were all huddled up in the tree bark today...

Except for this one, which was walking around on this trunk. It looks pretty battered.

I didn't really write this blog for those beetles, though (the only insects I saw on my bug walk, though I saw a march fly before that when I was outside). I am here for the spider in Arachnid Appreciation:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 I thought this was an ant when I first spotted it walking around on this rock, a winter ant being something that seemed more likely to be walking around today (they weren't, though. There were none on their usual sap-dripping tree today. I have seen them at colder temperatures lately, but they apparently prefer temps between the 40s and 60s), but I looked closer and realized it was a little spider.