Butterfly book.....

I found this beautiful little pocketguide to butterflies on Ebay. It has beautiful pictures and has a hand-drawn, hand-lettered style. It is by Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson and comes from Johnson Books in Boulder, CO
It's very pretty to look at and sometimes I even learn a new butterfly from it :-) Although I am not sure about that one I posted today. (see below)

Dragons and Ducks and.....whatever

(My scheduled posts are still not posting at the right time)

I could go to the Howell wetlands every day and be perfectly happy. Always something new to see. This first photo is actually one of the last that I took, but the strangest.It wasn't until I had it on the computer that I saw the discarded exoskeletons on the stick under this Amberwing Dragonfly. I didn't know they shed their skins.....or are they just old dead dried up ones? Interesting, whatever they are! (NOTE: Both Tom and Eve explain what these are in the comment section...thanks to both of you!)
Here, you can see it better and there were a couple more on the same stick.

I always like these green dragonfly females.


The water in the marsh is now covered with these yellow flowering plants. The leaves are really chewed up by something.
While looking at the flowers I saw something begin to move through them......

.....dark heads sneaking along in a line.

A family of 12 ducks.......I think a female Mallard in the lead. No male in sight.

They swam out to the edge of the weeds and started eating the plants.

3 Killdeer on the far side of the lake

In the meadow, these white flowers were attracting a wide assortment of bugs and bees and such. This one was beautiful, but I kept wondering it it would sting me and kept my distance!

Later I found this very tiny white butterfly. If you look closely it has striped antenae and striped legs. Rather pretty, but it would not open its wings for me! It is on a poison ivy leaf if that gives you an idea of the size....very small.

A rather lethal looking wasp. Later I saw a different kind that had yellow antenae, but it kept going under the leaves and I never got a good photo.

Mike took this photo of a web.......

....while I shot its owner. I never seem to be able to focus on the web and he did it very well.

That strange "bubble" is a turtle ducking its head just as I took the photo.

A pretty "puffer".

We always called this plant Nicotiana, but I don't really know if that is what it is.

It was so good to get out and not melt while walking around! There was actually a breeze blowing part of the time! Yeah!

Something is better than nothing....I guess

The hot weather is taking a break....yeah! I actually went outside and didn't pass out in the heat. I still have a week of Wimbeldon to watch on TV, but I imagine I will get out some this week :-)Here are a couple of dragonflies from our pond.....Widow Skimmer....always one of the easiest to get a photo of.
I thought this was Slaty Skimmer when I took the photo, but now I'm not sure. Doesn't look dark enough. the last of our Raspberries! We did not plant these....I think the birds must have planted them! I first discovered them last year and this year we have had enough to have a pie and a lot to just eat on cereal or ice cream or by themselves. Thank you, birds!

A lily that I didn't post yet....sort of a large reddish orange.

The male cardinals look a bit "ratty"....summer seems to be hard on them.

The Goldfinches are suddenly showing up again.

He seems to like this new feeder OK.

Chipping Sparrow. My birds are not great in variety at the moment and not a lot of them at the feeders.

I'm having some problems with the scheduled posting. Hope this posts.

Squirrel Sunday....hot days

It's too hot to take photos. It's too hot to do anything.

Star agrees with me, so here are some "oldies". If ever there was a photo that expresses how I feel right now, it is this one!
Just enough energy to eat.
....sort of.

.......maybe if he opens his mouth the food will come to him.

"Stop laughing at me!....It's HOT!

Where's that swimming pool you promised me??????"

Not dead, just busy....

Just want you to know that I'm still around! Between watching Wimbeldon, fixing crafts for VBS, and the heat, I'm just not getting out to take photos right now :-) My favorite triple-petaled Daylilies are opening now and I have them successfully scattered around several places. Here they wrap around the end of the garage in back.
A close-up of its lovely orange petals.

These darker red petaled daylilies are really taking off this year, too! They are one of the few things blooming in my so-called perenial bed this year....it is sadly neglected.

I like the way the stamins/anthers curve outward and upward. Looking back at the triple lily, you don't even see its stamins. How strange.

Itty, bitty bug eggs and baby whatever's.....

(UPDATE: BugGuide.net says they are stinkbugs)

I have no idea what these are but they hatched on the outside of my patio doors. Each one is only the size of the head of a pin! The entire colony is about a half inch in diameter. I can't believe how tiny they are. I watched them all day waiting to see if they grew or moved away or did anything. If they are still there in the morning, I will add an update to this post. I think this is the most "macro" thing I have ever photographed!


This one is from the inside of the house looking at their undersides.
I wish I knew what they are! I looked up Ladybugs, but their eggs are yellow.
When I went to bed, they were all hanging together underneath of the empty eggs.

Just flowers without bugs at Hartman.....

I had these flower images left over from my "bug" shots, so since I have nothing else decided to put them here. In my quilt blog, I posted a link for the outdoor quilt show which was very nice, although very hot.I can't give you most of the names, so I will just put the images here.

Zinnias

Gayfeather
Lots of different hydrangeas

Bottlebrush

Blueberries...unripe :-)