A day late posting this one..I was out yesterday..errands, errands... Anyway, during the afternoons it starts to sizzle once more, as we are continuing to have a heat build up but it is still bearable heat, in the low 90's yesterday. A blessing as well is that during the hottest part of the day, we get the lovely shade of the city trees.
As readers would have seen, a frequent visitor these days in my garden are the swallowtail butterflies and they have special preference to the tropical milkweed. Not sure if it was coincidence but after their visit, the blooms got a nasty bevy of aphids...grrr..so out with the alcohol, water, dish soap, cayenne pepper mixture. I think I got most of them but there is still a second wave that came..
Yesterday afternoon, I was so delighted to see this welcome visitor, going up and down the tropical milkweed..and right on the part of the plant that has the aphids! Yippee! Nature has sent this shiny, red lady bug! Go ladybug, go ladybug! You are soooo welcome to stay!
That's how I feel towards the grasshopper. They look so small and fragile. Big eyes, long printed limbs..good camouflage tactics by any foliage or blooms..
But seeing their trail of mess!!!
My poor chewed up shiny leaves and poop everywhere..ugh! These critters are closely ranking second to the nasty snails and slugs that I will love NOT TO SEE in my garden.
For today, it is back to orange dragonfly..not sure if it is the same one..but this one came back to the same tall succulent, so maybe it is.
I only got back and side views..so camera shy this one is.
Today is a wonderful and cool day! Waking up to 58F hooray! Forecast of mid 80's sounds so perfect to do some catch-up yard work. Have been putting it aside when temps start to soar to the higher 90's and more.
So today's cheerful visitor title goes to the swallowtail butterfly once more. As it gives a nice 'massage' to our tropical milkweed. This plant truly serves as a magnet to the butterflies.
For today, it's the itsy, bitsy......mantid. This one playing it like a spider..stalking its would be meal by the web on my little cycad. Can't really see the face, so will just imagine how it looks.
Just trying to get a more upclose shot:
