the good and the bad...

The bad...immature milkweed bugs

Though only 2 are showing , there were many more.

The good...
I have monarch caterpillars on my swamp milkweed! I've seen at least 6  tiny littel 1st instars, eating voraciously. And I've found a couple eggs too.
I was beginning to think I was never going to get any eggs on any plant!

Otherwise it looks like another heat wave, just as I'm starting a weeks vacation.  I had hopes to getting some yard work done but...maybe not so much.  But I'm ok with that.  LOL  Instead today I've been working on my photos, getting them onto the computer, organizing the latest ones.

This morning I went out onto the porch to throw some nuts to the squirrel that was on the table in the yard. I noticed along the patio under a landscape timber, movement.  At first I thought it was my meadow vole, but then realized it was smaller. Maybe a shrew? I tried enticing it with a peanut, but it was more interested in a few pieces of cracked corn that was on the concrete.  But he never came out, instead he kept sticking a tiny paw or nose out until he snatched a tiny piece and that was all I saw of him.

I'll be watching for it!