Baby Praying Mantis

   Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting on my porch swing enjoy my porch. I happened to glance towards the railing while watching for hummingbirds, and seen this teeny tiny creature. It was the tiniest baby praying mantis I had ever seen. In fact, the only kind I have ever seen were adults. This one was almost invisible without a magnifying glass. It was about 1/2" to 3/4" long. Its body about as thick as a sewing needle and its head smaller than the head of a pin.  I ran to get my camera, and almost couldnt even get a good focus on it. When i zoomed it, I couldnt see it, when I zoomed out it was gone. I tried to place my finger behind it for size comparison. The little bugger kept roaming around my porch post. Finally, I got him in sight and quickly snapped. Unbelievable how tiny he is.

A Little Birdie Came To Visit

     Little Robin Red Breast came to visit one day. She liked her guest room so well, that she left a little prize. She flew back and forth for hours , and  took a lot of care to  place every little stem very precise. A lot of pride and hard work went into making her quaint little nest. Everything had to be just perfect for her precious little ones.

This cute little nest with its beautiful blue eggs were left in a large old wreath that hangs on the side of my house on my front porch. I cant wait to see them hatch. Hopefully my kitties wont notice. A couple of them are quite accomplished hunters.

BEE......N Busy

   While outside with my camera this morning, I decided to take a pic of  one of my clumps of Purple Coneflower:

While admiring the color of these blooms, I happened to notice this guy:

He is soooo loaded with pollen, he looks hilarious. This guy has been one busy bee. I have never seen anything like it.

He looks almost too fluffy to fly.

Surprises in the Garden

  When working in the garden, one always needs to be prepared for all the little surprises that tend to occur. You never know what Mother nature is going to throw your way. Such as sudden rain storms, snakes, bugs, bird donated plants, etc. I have had all of the above, plus one more this morning. I opened a jug with one lone, Shasta Daisy seedling inside. I figured I might as well plant it out. So I carefully dug my hole, then scooped my fingers down in and under the seedling. Scooping it out gently. While picking it up and moving towards the hole, I thought it felt a little different.....a little squishy. Suddenly, I thought I felt slight movement inside the lump of dirt.Still i wasnt concerned. I just figured it was a bug, and gently laid it in the hole. Just as the clump settled into the hole, suddenly a little critter jumps from the clump as if to say, " Hey, I was sleeping there!" here is what I actually had in my hand:

Luckily, this is my daughter holding it for the close-up. I am a little more squeamish,lol

And here is the home he was so rudely evicted from:

This was actually a little better than the surprise I got while messing around in my lillies last year. I might be squeamish about the frog, but I dont like snakes.