Insect girl

This past week has been so pretty as the weather transitions into fall. The sky gets bluer every day and the air almost seems crisp compared to what it should be at this time of year. If you could cut the air with a knife, it wouldn't leave any crumbs....well, maybe a lot of crumbs if it was truly crisp...oh, forget the metaphor...it's just d*mn pretty out there.

On Saturday I decided to visit the Kauffman Memorial Garden because I've been driving past it twice a day to and from work for years and have never stopped to take a look at it. I will have 20+ acres to do something with and I have got to start researching what to do with all that space.

The grape leaf anemones were in bloom and true to their name (anemone robustissima), looked um, robust. Bees and butterflies were very busy with them.

The garden is set up with four parallel walkways, two alongside the long center water feature and two on the outside. I walked down this outside aisle and was happy to see some milkweed in bloom because I was wondering if any native plants were included in this garden. As far as I could tell, this garden was full of the same old, same old when it came to what was planted.

I wasn't sure what the planting theme was with the garden because all of a sudden...banana trees.

The garden had a lot of the typical things you find in everyone's landscaped frontyard such as wax begonias and dusty miller...two plants I just despise. I was kind of getting bored with the whole thing although I have to admit it's unfair to judge a garden at this time of year when everything is winding down. I am appreciative of the rows of magnolia trees. They must look absolutely fabulous in the spring.

I decided this was not a gardener's garden. This was just a very pretty place to get away during the day, maybe eat your lunch, and then get back to the office. Pretty, but nothing I wanted to duplicate.

So I decided to get back to my own garden, as sloppy and unkempt as it is. And my bugs can be a lot more cooperative when it comes to picture taking because the insects in this garden were fast flyers! At least I managed to get a photo of one little skipper butterfly...

So here's what was going on in my garden. A spider was running around somewhere completely naked because he left his clothes on this four o'clock.

A jumping spider was on the kitchen door trying to get inside the house again.

He then surprised me when he suddenly leapt between a space in the decking. I think he saw this parasitic wasp.

Maybe he leapt because he saw me. Jumping spiders get really fed up when I follow them around with my camera.

And then there are these sweet little things. I know leafhoppers are supposed to eat leaves but these guys have yet to leave any holes in the calla leaves.

For some reason that garden stayed in my memory because it really bothered me that there was nothing in it that spoke to me...until I saw this close-up of one of the sculptures after uploading it onto the computer. That shadow makes her look like she has an extra set of arms...and with four arms and two legs...she could be an insect girl.

Success. I found inspiration. The first thing I want in my future garden is an insect girl sculpture and if she could be part of a fountain, even better. :-)

And the things you will never find? I can definitely say you'll never see dusty miller OR wax begonias.