Good grief!  The summer is scurrying by.  We're into August and it is hot out there.  I'm now finally almost ready for summer.  I have multiple bottles of spray-on mosquito repellent - those skeeters have been brutal.  So when you come over to sit around and stare at the pretty water lilies, make sure to tell me to bring out those essential supplies!  Here are a yellowish lily, and that one pinkish one that surprised us last week.

This one shows one Pink lily and one yellowish one.  This picture was taken on August 3.  Down under the water (center of picture) you can see another bud coming up.  What are we NOT seeing?  For about a week now, the sweet little Green Frog (right) has not shown up for a portrait.  This disappearance is possibly not something disturbing, although I miss seeing it every day.  Last year we ended up the season with several Frogs, but not this year.   

Here is what we DO have: these little Toadlets.  They have grown from the tiny little things they were a couple of weeks ago to some fairly good-sized (about an inch long from butt to tip of head.

Here are some of the smaller creatures from the last week.  For some time I have been feeling left out by the Barklice (Psocids) that I stopped seeing.  I complained to my friend Diane Young, an excellent Psocidist, that the North Wall of the Woodshop, which had been so easy a target if one wanted to photograph a few Psocids, had suddenly stopped yielding any at all.  But yesterday (August 3) I had a wonderful afternoon out there.  Here first are a couple of  Graphopsocus cruciatus, which a  lot of people call the F-winged Barklouse.  Third has some of the coloration I associate with the genus Trichadenotecnum.   

Here is a Picture-winged Fly.  I hadn't seen one of these in a few years!  

To add to the excitement, Here is a Long-tailed Giant Ichneumon Wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus ssp. macrurus)!  These things are huge.  I estimate it was about 5-6 inches long including that fantastically long tail!   Is that an extraordinary Wasp or not?!  (Yes!)

A few years ago I purchased a new Day Lily in a gorgeous yellow color, Autumn Orange.  It is blooming now!

Let's see a few more fishes and call it a day after this blog was supposed to go out!  The colors on these fishes are amazing, and no two are alike!  

Thanks for joining me again, and I wish everyone as much beauty and friendship as you can share.  Love, Martha