Hi Everyone! Thanks for stopping by and sharing! I've enjoyed reading this and seeing all the pictures! Edcolor> That's great your garden is doing so well! We have problems from time to time with all female flowers for awhile too. For the life of me I can't remember why that happens, but if I find the info I'll let you know. :-) It's HOTcolor> here and the gardens are a little tired right now. I have a few flowers and such coming up but not much right now. zackeycolor> I'm all to familiar with no rain. We just had our first monsoon storm and it broke a record of 82 days no rain. I hope you start getting yours soon. I plant alot late in the season too. But it's such a long one we can get away with it. :-) kandhicolor> I love the bird! We have a few similar to that here too. My yard is full of little finches. I did catch one of the little stinkers eating a tomato the other day though. lol... Beautiful picture of the butterfly! How many did it take? lol.. I think I must have taken 50 to get the 2 decent pics. Your yard has a lot of beautiful colors! Alcolor> Everything looks great! I love the brown/tan speckled pot! It's good to see your yard coming together! Mikecolor> I showed your kind words to Jace. He says thanks. :-) We love the sunflowers! Big happy cheery blooms! Beautiful pictures! I know first hand Bee's are hard to get pictures of! They just don't sit still enough for the macro setting. lol.. I love them! 2 'bee's' in a pod. ;-) And the frog! What a beautiful picture with all the plants around him! I want a pond!!! I'm whining..lol... I had a toad a few years back that would acknowledge my voice and let me scratch his chin, without catching him! It's funny to think of something like them trusting people but I've seen that they can. Joshcolor> Your always welcome to splash some color! :-) And some great color you did! That rose is beautiful!! Wow! And the other flowers almost seem 3D! Great job with the macro! Josh, you need to sit out there all day and get a picture of the hummers. lol... Thanks buddy! kandhicolor> What is the variegated one with the red flowers? That is beautiful! And the colors in the picture below are amazing! thanks for showing those! Blakecolor> I love the Raccoon! And it has kits! How sweet! We don't have them around our homes, but do up in the mountains. I've never seen any in the wild myself. The plants/flowers are beautiful! What is the pink one just below the Raccoon? I've never seen anything like it! I'd love to try and find one! Partial to the lavender ones too . :-) I hope you all have a great day! JoJocolor>

It was brought to my atention by MissSherry that I've mis-labeled the Spicebush Swallowtails......they are actually female Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. The body of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is solid black, where the body of the Spicebush has white spots. Additionally, the underside of the forewing of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has a single row of spots, and the Spicebush Swallowtail has a doubel row of spots. Thanks MissSherry! - Arlan

PowerShot SD800 IS. Removable memory card. I recommend the high speed card. I carry several on trips with me so I can organize my photos and have never filled one up. The battery charger is tiny, too. The charge last a very long time. I think I've recharged about 5 times since I got the camera in March. I carried this little camera to Italy this summer and was very pleased (compared to lugging a big SLR around). If you want to see those photos for the quality on my travel blog go to www.tourtuscany.blogspot.com It has a stitch capability, "scene" modes (like foliage, pets, night time); you can shoot automatic, manual or scene; macro focus; digital zoom and optical zoom 3.8x15; 4.6-17.3mm 1:2.8-5.8 7.1 megapixels Uploading pictures is a breeze by pressing a button on the back of the camera and using a USB cable. The software is pretty good for reducing the size, though if you want to edit, you'll prefer something else. About all I do on outdoor photos is an occasional cropping. I tend to edit more for indoor photos to balance the light and brighten the photos. The camera excels with outdoor shots and macro. Today's photos aren't as crisp as yesterday's. I took these in bright sunlight instead of in the morning. I take my best photos before 10:00am due to the light at my house (open meadow area, full sun). I believe these are a Variegated Fritillary, a Buckeye and a Pearl Crescent? No editing on these (or the RBH) except for adding the text. These were difficult to capture up close, so I had to use the zoom at 15x instead of using the macro like I did on the RBH.

My yard is so over run with voles and cotton rats that I go out of my way to catch snakes and release them in my yard when I can. It drives a lot of friends and visitors crazy because I don't care if they are poisonous snakes or not, as long as they eat rodents they are fine by me. Whenever I use bird netting to protect fruiting bushes or trees I check it twice a day to rescue any snakes or turtles that have gotten tangled up in it (this happens a lot!). My neighbors used to assume I was going to chop up the copperheads but I carefully cut them free and took them over to the brush pile. I need all the rodent eaters I can get. It helps that I worked for years and years as a zookeeper and had to handle snakes every day - they don't bother me at all. I enjoy them when I see them.