Mantises!

The Hubbers discovered (and rescued from a predatory spider!) these newly hatched praying mantises on a scrubby, little hemlock tree in our backyard. Each one is only about 1/4 inch (0.8 cm) long. They are so cool. We check on them every day. Even though vegetable gardening isn't in the cards for us this year, we have bunches to discover and appreciate in our own backyard. We recently learned that our next door neighbors' farm is an organic CSA co-op. Instead of tending our own garden, we can trade our labor at their farm for a CSA share. That is if there are any shares left for the taking at this point in the season.

The yellow flowering bush in the last post was identified by a facebook reader as a Japanese rose, kerria japonica.