Patient Gardening

 I planted a hydrangea bush several years ago as root stock, which means it was just a twig with roots. This is a very slow way of gardening. It is the complete opposite of instant gratification, and involves several years of reminding yourself that that twig with a few leaves on it stuck in the ground is actually something you want to protect, not run over with the weed whacker or yank up. It has never bloomed. Last year was the first year it even had more than one stalk to it. But this year, finally, there are buds on the plant, and I am cautiously excited about finally seeing flowers on it. It won't bloom until later in the summer, though, so there's not much to see yet, but I glance at it as I walk by, checking for some kind of growth or progress. And that is how I found today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

Wasp

Such pretty blue wings 

Somewhat ironically, when I told my husband that there are buds on the hydrangea he thought I said bugs.

I didn't do a bug walk today. I mowed the lawn, and brought my camera outside, as I have done for year, leaving it on the back porch in case I find any interesting bugs while I am mowing. I didn't find any while I was mowing, but I found a few (including the Backyard Bug of the Day wasp) as I was getting ready to start working.

Caterpillar using silk thread to create a shelter for itself inside a leaf

I'm not sure what kind of egg this is, but it looks like a snowberry clearing moth, one of the hummingbird moths.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Here we have a harvestman/daddy-long-legs and two mites as parasites on it. I don't think I have ever taken such a clear picture of the "face" of a harvestman. The harvestman is not a spider, but it is an arachnid, and so are the mites, but when it comes to Arachnid Appreciation, I doubt the harvestman appreciates the mites. I wonder if it even knows they are there, though.