Say hello to my little friend

Here he is... an upside down praying mantis!

I woke up this morning and took Zoey out like normal but besides the breath taking humidity so early, I noticed lots of black and blue butterflies! So beautiful and magical in the morning light as the locusts sang their persistent calls. They must've had a hatching all at once or whatever it's called... but they were everywhere and a wonderful site to see. Those locusts are out with bells on and that always reminds me of Florida. Ahhh the sounds of summer.

So even though it was like 600 degrees outside and now the hottest part of the day I took my camera and waited for the foggy lens to clear up to take some mid summer pictures and try to get some pics of those beautiful winged creatures. To my surprise I finally got one and then another and I think I took about 200 pictures trying to get them with those gorgeous wings open and then oooo! across the porch I noticed one landing on my tiger lilies. I had to get the contrast of that orange flower and black with blue butterfly. As I got closer, surprise!! A little praying mantis shot out of nowhere and ran up the flower to see who this winged invader was. I'm not sure if I scared the butterfly off or the praying mantis did but as I tried to snap as many close up pictures that I could my battery went kaput. Wouldn't you know it. I think that praying mantis's are the neatest little creatures and can watch them for hours. Sometimes they hitch a ride in with my plants and end up in the greenhouse in the fall but I don't know where they end up cause I usually never see them again. I just read recently that praying mantis's are one of the top predators of hummingbirds. Who knew! But that is nature. But aren't the butterflies and all the little creatures just so magical? 

Here I'm chasing a butterfly, see it on the far left hand side about mid way down?

Ok, these petunia's don't have a butterfly on them right now, but they are my favorite color of petunias.

Here is the butterfly tantalizing me...

Success! It finally lets me touch it and hold it! It must like the way I taste because it lingered for many pictures.

Here is the praying mantis running up the flower to chase away the butterfly.

I want to thank my friend Sharon over at Plumrose Lane for an excellent tutorial of adding a signature to your posts on Blogger. Thanks, Sharon!! She is a wealth of info and has spectacular FREE designs for your blog. Sharon also has an Etsy shop, Mana Moon Studio's, that she is closing down and everything is 75% off! Go now! I just swooped up 3 beautiful pieces that I can't wait to get and show you all. 

So, how does my signature look? See ya soon!