When I put out birdseed in the morning, I usually have a quick look around the garden to see what’s happening. This morning, I found that our (very) small Mexican Olive tree was crawling with ladybugs and ladybug larvae. If you’ve never seen a ladybug larva, they look like they would be good candidates for monster movie creatures. I came back in and told my daughter to put on her shoes because I wanted to show her something. She was delighted with the adult ladybugs and fascinated by the grey and black larvae. She isn’t a very girly-girl. Last week, she netted baby crawfish for her fish tank.

We had ballet recital pictures today. I tarted my three-year old up with lipstick, blush and eyeshadow. She was delighted. I think there is something kid of creepy about little girls with makeup.

The lid wasn’t quite all the way on the sandbox when it rained on Wednesday. Now it is a sand swamp. My little boy is delighted with it, however. I’m sitting downwind of the jasmine vine, which are in full flower right now. It is warm, 80ish, and When the breeze dies down, the smell from the jasmine and the wax leaf ligustrum is almost overpowering. Baby sparrows in the birdhouse call for food and I can hear a red-bellied woodpecker in the trees nearby. The Texas Bird Book says that white-winged doves live west and south of San Antonio, but there are usually half a dozen or so of them at my bird feeder. A young grey squirrel keeps his eye on us as he nibbles corn below the feeder.

I’ve come up with a number of ideas, just being outside. Now, if I just had time to write all of the articles and stories that are in my head…

 Butterflies get all the press, but lots of other creatures morph from one thing to something completely diffent.