The bees evidently share my infatuation. Or maybe it's just that most of our flowers aren't big enough for several visitor at once.

The bees evidently share my infatuation. Or maybe it's just that most of our flowers aren't big enough for several visitor at once.
Another, earlier instar than the big one at the top. That's Dante's thumb, albeit at a weird angle, for comparison.
All summer I've been checking the milkweed we planted from the wild stuff we found by the beaver pond in Colchester. We'd also planted some Butterfly Oscar seeds (a milkweed variety)we'd gotten from Johnny's. Those plants never flowered because as the leaves filled in on the trees that surround our yard, that part of the garden was cast in too much shade. But evidently the monarchs didn't mind, and now their babies are nibbling the plants down to the stem.
We also spotted this Arrowhead Shaped Micrathena, a very cool spider from an interesting looking family of spiders. You can see more of this particular spider, as well as the others at Bugguide.net. Which is where I got this picture, since the one I took is too blurry. Someday I'll learn how to use my camera, but until then... here's my pic:
Snake in the grass. Not on a plane.
Bandit gives Izzy a kiss on the head.
Tinkerbelle's posture always seems so formal to me.
Katie displays one of the crabs that didn't managed to escape when their prison tipped over.
Lucia, modeling a lovely bedhead hairstyle this morning, swings with Tinkerbelle.
Peepers joins Dante on the swing.
The girls love their greens.
Back at the cranberry bog, this grasshopper couldn't stay away from Dante.
We got a big box of sauce tomatoes from our weekly pickup at the Old Maid's Lane Organic Farm CSA, so we spent a day cutting and cooking and canning them. Here's Dante putting the tomatoes through the food mill. This was our first foray into canning -- I think next time we'll can the tomatoes as whole as possible.
Dante, the 45lb cannonball. splash.
Lucia loves the tubular landing.