Love Bugs

I like noticing and appreciating the small, beautiful details in the world around me. Mundane, everyday, amazing things. So if I'm doing something ordinary like sitting in the garden with a cuppa, daydreaming, and ruminating on all the family, life, work, and creativity things, I will be simultaneously drifting in and out of the moment, and noticing the ways grass blades sit side by side, or ants grooving by, or the different shades of green a single tree can hold, or the different ways in which bees collect their nectar.

I don't think this is a unique thing in any way.  I imagine most introspective types would do this. But. If I settle into watching a bug for long enough, I'll also tend to start anthropomorphising said bug. I do this a lot. I'm not sure if this is as common!

I used to think this was a relatively recent development for me - dating back to becoming a fur-parent to Bodie and Indi. But then Hubs kindly reminded me of a jokey song he wrote about me well before fur-parenthood, called "Set Free the Flies". And if I think back to that time, I still have a vivid memory of some kind of fruit fly bug taking a nose dive into my glass of wine one evening. Instead of fishing and squishing, I popped it onto a patch of paper towel on the kitchen window sill and watched fascinated as it dried itself painstakingly and then spat out teeny drop after teeny drop of wine with an expression of distaste on its face. So errr, I may have been anthropomorphising critturs for a wee bit longer than I realised! 😁

To celebrate all my bug-anthropomorphising tendencies, here's a recent collection of pics of the lil bugs I've recently encountered, mostly in the garden.

Bees

The two bees on the right were rescues - from the paddle pool. When the paddle pool is in play in summer, I check the water as often as I can. I've picked out all sorts of critturs out of the water, even mosquitoes (mozzies, as we call them here in Oz) - I couldn't bring myself to leave them there, even though they're bitey little meanies! But rescuing the bees feels most important. I have the paper towel on standby to help them get rid of extra moisture faster, the spoon with a water-and-honey mix in case they need sustenance. There were a couple of rescues when I thought I'd left it too late, but the relief when they flew away is awesome!

The little bee on the left took a liking to my orange laundry tub (which has gotten appropriated as LittleOne's playtime water tub). I had to rescue him a couple of days in a row when he got into trouble trying to drink from the two inches of play-water. So after that, I made sure to only leave a millimetre of water in the tub for him. And he returned everyday, sometimes two or three times a day, for nearly two weeks! At least, I'm assuming it was the same lil dude. It was quite a thing, having to add 'fresh millimetre of water in orange tub for the bee' to my list of morning jobs!

Paper wasps

These two guys have been building on this same fairy light for months now. The first time I saw them, I broke their hive when it was four-long because I was worried a hoard of paper wasps was arriving imminently. They built again, again just the two of them against the world. In my head, they became outcasts, building a home just for the two of them, against the world. Unsurprisingly,  I found it difficult to break their home after that! 

Their hive got to two-wide, seven-long when Hubs accidentally stood beneath it and his hair brushed the bottom of the hive, sending one wasp flying away in confusion. Even though they thankfully didn't bite, I broke the hive again after that. But I kept an eye on the light and was kinda relieved when they were both back by the next morning. I also lifted the light so that even though it's still above the main stairs on and off the deck, it's higher up and we can't accidentally brush it. The hive is seven-long again, so I may need to break again soon 😬

But, as of last week, I'm very sad to advise that the paper wasps went away. Of their own accord. I don't know if the rain drove them away, or if their time was up, or they were found by their paper wasp colony and dragged back to face charges for desertion. Let's go with, they went to find a better home.

Ladybirds 

We have a lot of ladybirds in the garden  which is lovely. The fact they really seem to enjoy living on quick-sprouting and quick-spreading weeds isn't so lovely. But spotting them is a fun game. (Disclaimer: I'm not sure if the lil bottom right dude is a ladybird, but it looks ladybird-ish - right down to living on the same pesky weed that ladybirds seem to love.)

Here's another batch of ladybirds, all from the same row of plants, all near each other. No, it's not the same ladybird at different angles!

Other little bugs and critturs

Hello to all the lizards, butterflies, dew-covered bug on the side of the paddle pool early one morning, large spider with food bag, young green cricket, dragonfly, ant in the bathroom who lives mostly on dead ants but who caught a mozzie the other that it feasted on happily, and even younger super-photogenic green cricket!

And hello to butterflies and more spiders and more lizards!

And most of all

A super-special shout-out to LittleOne's garden discoveries. The caterpillar was spotted entirely by LittleOne - I would never have seen it otherwise - and I really, really hope it made it all the way to becoming a butterfly! And the other little bug at 2-3 millimetres long is a tiny, bitey-looking thing. I have NO idea what it is, but it was LittleOne's first rescue from a bowl of play water! (I'm SO proud!😍)

Live well, lil bugs. I'll see you all soon (outside the house, please)!

Du fond du coeur.