Spring Butterflies

I looked outside today and saw some pretty butterflies fluttering about my heather bush.

I grabbed my camera and snuck outside for some photos.  (Oxana, I think you might like this post!)

 As one of the few flower bushes around this time of year, this flowering bush is very popular.  There was a giant bumblebee buzzing about as well as numerous other pollinating insects.

 The butterfly flitted about the bush.

 The underside of its wings were a non-descript brown.

 But the top of its wings were a reddish brown.

It looked quite nice against the pinkish purple flowers. 

 The edge of the wings were bordered with white, and there was a row of dark purple with pale bluish/purple spots.

As it sat on the bush, it would open and close its wings.  It reminded me of the butterflies on Sesame Street or The Muppets.  It was kind of surreal.

 

 It stayed for quite a while before finally fluttering away.  I hope it comes back soon.

I hope you are enjoying the nice weather.

Poor Cool Bug

My sister decided to stain the front porch today (at night).  With porch lights on as well as two indoor stand lights, she's a bright beacon for mosquitos and other insects to navigate towards.  Suddenly,  a large bug hit her back.  Aaggh!

It turned out to be a ten-lined June beetle.  She immediately called me over to take a look (since I like interesting bugs).  I took some pictures to show you.

It's a greenish brown colour on the shell with cream stripes with dark outlines. 

 The antennae are a lovely reddish brown colour and very large.

It is also called a Watermelon Beetle, probaby due to its watermelon-like appearance.

 I think it was stunned from crashing into my sister, or maybe my flash blinded him.  Either way, he stayed put for the photos.

 I took a few more pics and went away.  Suddenly, my sister called me again.  "Oh no!" she cried.  "Something terrible happened!  I was painting and I stepped back when I heard a CRUNCH!"

Oh no... The beetle had moved to the middle of the porch.  It was still alive, but it was leaking.  Ugh... I folded a little paper box and put him inside of it.  

Now the paper box is sitting on my succulent plants.  I wanted to give him the chance to fly away in case he survives.  I am not so sure he will though.  He was leaking a lot from the back.  

Poor, poor beetle!

Look Who's Visiting! A Monarch Butterfly!

I slowly edged up to the large, timid butterfly perched precariously on my vivid cosmos. This was going to be the photograph of the century. I raised my camera, adjusted the settings... RING-RING-RING! I jumped, and the butterfly took off into the air. "Aw, drats!" I exclaimed. "This better be a VERY important phone call!"

It was V. calling to say hi. I told him the inopportune moment that he had called at, and he was very sorry that he had scared away my perfect butterfly Kodak moment. Looking out his window, he noted that there was not one but TWO monarch butterflies taking lunch among his lilies. He made a haste goodbye and promised butterfly pictures.

But a few minutes later, I had butterfly pictures in my inbox. Ah, how lovely! V. had held true to his word.

And now here they are for your enjoyment as well. I have used one full-sized image as my desktop and it looks GLORIOUS! I love it! Thanks, V.

Cupcakes and Fuzzy Bumblebees

I was strolling along a sunny Spring sidewalk, when I noticed something fuzzy and cute walking in little circles in the grass. It was a giant, fuzzy bumblebee! Now, I DO mind fuzzy bumblebees buzzing around my head, but this little fellow was very busy walking his circles so I stopped to stare and take a few snapshots to show you.

The local ants were upset with him and crawled onto him, perhaps biting him. He shook his leg a couple times just to try and get them off.
Finally, tired of the angry barrage of red biters, he ran over to a grassy spot, spun around a few times, burrowed down into the greeness, and sat to watch the biters from afar. I don't know much about bumblebees, so I'm not sure what he was up to or why such a cute, fuzzy fellow would be sitting hidden in such a steppable spot. If it wasn't for the fact that he was bright yellow and black and rather large, I would normally have squashed him by accident.

I had to hurry on to work so I left him in his hideout.

My day at work started off pretty good, my co-worker climbed up to reach over our cube wall and lower a plate of cupcakes to me. He was like Santa Claus, but with cupcakes.
Armed with the yummy sugary snack, I was wired and ready to begin a busy day of work - much more busy than that little bumblebee sitting in his nest of grass.

It's a Bug's Life

It was sunny today, so I hefted my bucket of compost from last year down to the communal garden. The compost is still in decomposing mode so it was pretty mucky and smelly. I spread all the contents out with a shovel. It should dry out and continue breaking down into nutritious soil by the time I can start gardening in earnest.

When I stuck my shovel into the dirt, I came upon a mysterious inhabitant. Here he is below:





No, I didn't smash him with my shovel. I buried him again. He's safe and sound waiting for some yummy roots to eat now. Technically, I SHOULD have smashed him since the roots he'd be eating would be my plants, but I'm not ready to garden yet and I hate to kill anything unnecessarily in the garden. I found this same kind of grub last year, and it didn't seem to do any damage. Besides, he might be a June Bug larvae, and I LOVE June Bugs. I think they are so cool cuz they're so big and look so pretty with their pale green and white striped backs.

Maybe I'll see this little soil inhabitant again one day when he's all grown up!

Sunny Spring Weather

It's absolutely spectacular outside today - full sun and 21 degrees Celsius. I took advantage of the great weather to do some gardening. I planted some green beans and butter squash with seeds left over from last year's crop, and some Kumquat orange seeds. I have no idea if the orange seeds will grow, but it would be really cool if they did! There was also some transplanting to do and a LOT of cleaning.

While I was digging around in the garden, I came across a squishy grub, probably a beetle larva of some sort. I took some pictures of him before he buried his way back into the soil.







I am also happy to see some tiny blue flowers reappearing in my lawn. One year, the entire lawn was light blue because of these little flowers.

What's that Bug?

Have you ever seen (or squashed) a bug and wondered what it was? Now you can find out! I came across an interesting site today called, "What's that Bug?" Readers can take photos of cool insects from their trips and other discovery points and mail it in to get to the bottom of their curiosity.

There is also a page under "Carnage" that contains photos of poor, deceased bugs who met unfortunate ends. The website identifies the squashed bugs and tells you why it was unnecessary slaughter. It seems morbid, but you do learn a lot. The good thing is that the site's writers have a sense of humour about many of the posts.

Oh, if you ever see this insect around, don't kill it. It's a potato bug or Jerusalem cricket. It seems to be a winner in the unnecessary slaughter category. People go to all lengths- like dropping bricks from a height- to eliminate this poor insect. These scary looking bugs live underground and are harmless. They can bite if you handle them, but are not aggressive or poisonous.

More Realistic Fake Insects

Here are some more realistic looking insects made by Graham Owen. You can find more tutorials on how he makes these on this page.