Rae Spencer

Summer has filled the yard with flying insects.

I don’t care for the sudden swarms of biting flies and mosquitoes, but the dragonflies seem happy. They hunt ravenously from dawn to dusk, eating everything they can catch–including flies and mosquitoes.

(Of course, they pause every so often to mate.)

Butterflies aren’t as numerous as dragonflies, but the butterfly bush, milkweed, and lantana draw a surprising variety of species.

Bees are more interested in the salvia and dill.

And the June bugs seem strangely attracted to Treebeard, our young live oak tree.

All in all, it’s been a good summer in the yard. So far. (Though if it gets much itchier, I may end up spending the rest of July and much of August hiding in the house.)