Bugs, Birds & Flowers (Oh, & a promotion!)

Quick update .... Raining here today (in the city). Haven't had a lazy Sunday afternoon in forever. Got my underwear drawer cleaned out, pictures downloaded from camera & a doing a few loads of laundry.

Have found a few weird bugs lately & thought I would share pics of them. Click to bigefy.

I have no idea what any of them are, just thought they were interesting. Not sure if that last one has a baby on top or if they are mating?

We also had an unwanted visitor move in at the country house this past spring.

Not that I don't like swallows, I think they are lovely birds. I just don't want one right . above . the entry . door. We'll have to encourage them to build their nest somewhere else next year, as I hear they come back to the same spot year after year.

We also ran across this beautiful plant along the fence line. I think it's called a Spider Lily? You could tell there were many more that had bloomed but we must have missed them by a week or so. This was the last one & it was falling apart by the end of the weekend.

I also planted some sunflowers at the city house this year that did great. Too bad I started them too late to help with pollination. I think they are Mexican Sun Burst?

w/bee

w/o bee

And last but not least, a few weeks back I got a promotion at work. New management had moved in & this was totally unexpected as I had figured I would remain a Director until I leave. Guess I impressed them without ever meaning to. I will now retire as a Vice President!

Oh well, that's all I've got for now. Still a few more events to catch up on from the summer but I'll write about those in separate posts.