Insects of Our Yard

Dragonfly that the boys have named Howard.
If you click on the first two photos of him, you'll see that he is smiling. ;) Something that amuses the boys to no end!

 Bees pollinating our sunflowers. Hooray for seeds!

No matter how much we water them, our sunflowers seem to be drying up. At least I got these photos when I did. I think that area just gets too much sun. In our yard, one part is always shrouded in shade, and another part is perpetually sunny. There are two parts in our yard that get both sun and shade, and they are both cemented... so no planting there. I already had a bunch of spaghetti squash plants die out from lack of sunlight. :(

 

Another bu... oh wait. That's our cat. Tee-hee!

Let me introduce you to our mint plants! Isn't it cool that we have mint plants?? We have two different types. Maybe spearmint and peppermint? I don't know, but one smells like typical mint and another is slightly different. It's flowering now, and boy, do we get a cornucopia of bees and butterflies here!

We only saw this grey and orange butterfly here once.

But these white ones are a dime a dozen!

See? Five that I was able to spot instantly. This is just the surface. There are at least twice as many in the middle of all the plants.

We also have a cricket family that moved in permanently! Family? I mean city population. They're alright... I thought at first that they'd prevent all sleep in our house, but they are pretty cool. The "singing" is quite pretty and with the windows closed, you barely hear them from the bedrooms.

Short video... too dark to see anything, so it's just sound.