The Good, Bad and the Ugly....

was a great movie.. but Momma Nature's movie is even better...so sorry i don't have a movie.. BUT .. IF i had oodles and oodles of 'dough' perhaps i'd have one of those fancy dancy video cameras that does Macro/micro what-have-yous.... but i don't.. so still it is.... and ONE day i'll have a better lense... but in the meantime i'm happy to you show you the good.... bad and (not so) ugly....

the good.....

Nasturtiums...an all purpose plant... great to ward off some of those 'evil' aphids... tasty flowers and seeds to eat... the flowers can be just eaten in a salad or maybe dipped in some batter and deep fried, make a vinegarette, stuffed...the list goes on.... and the seeds are a poor man's capers... not so bad huh!!! apparently the earwigs have found my nasturtium leaf delicious, but not quite as delicious as my marigolds which now have the appearance of a tree who's leaves have fallen off in september.... 

in my previous post is a picture of two very frisky little ladybird beetles...they have long since flown away... BUT....  

'ladybird ladybird fly away home, your house is on fire and your children are alone. (eating those BAD aphids!!)

you can see this baby ladybird beetle larva is having a 'tasty' aphid meal... yummy yummy in my tummy....

and below, i believe this is an 'older' sibling of the above ladybird larva

a brand new hatching of babies... woohoo....

the bad.......

i'm really not so sure what this is... BUT i suspect that it's something come to eat more of my apple tree...

just a note * the apple tent caterpillars i seem to have under control... whew!!!

and the ugly....

a LOT of folks really really don't like snakes, think they are ugly and are terrified of them or just plain annoyed by their existance... pity because they do so much good...as for me i love to see them in the garden and this year is a great year for the garter snakes, at least here on the farm.. i've spotted quite a few... the large amount of slugs i had are no longer.. haven't seen one in awhile....

this snake was 'visiting' another snake.. but unfortunately i disturbed them before the 'dance' ... so sorry mr and mrs snake..  

all the critters were found in, on or under my apple tree that was infested with aphids... as for the aphids, they seem to have died down to a dull roar... so i'll leave them and see what transpires... so far... 'full circle'...