Love was in the air...

...and hanging there (literally) when it comes to these two milkweed bugs.

This couple however, was not so acrobatic....but still, they had to figure out a way to back into each other's rear without using rear view mirrors (Gawd. Insects are so weird)!

This little perv was more interested in that other couple though...

...they just kept hanging and swinging in the breeze...I'm not sure this was a move that the one hanging upside-down had planned on because look at that expression!

Then there were these two tiger beetles. Love was on the rocks when it comes to this couple (again, literally).

She would take her middle legs and try to push that boy off and sometimes she was able to do that but he would just fly a big circle and in a flash, he was on her again. I think she was very, very annoyed with him. She just wanted.....to........get......him......off....of her.

Tiger beetle boys are obnoxious like that because they don't want any other tiger beetle messing with their girl. I'm thinking this tiger beetle girl would like to be a spider girl because 1. she would have an extra set of legs to push him off and 2. if she wanted to punctuate her feelings regarding his technique, she could bite off his head.

Further up the creek, the ebony jewelwing damselflies were flitting up and down and across and alighting on the big butterbur leaves and were experiencing love much more romantically.

The boy holds the girl's head (she's the one with the white dots on her wings)...

...and then they bend their bodies...

...to form a heart.

So, so pretty. It was hard to look away from such a thing.

Unless you were Tilly...

...or Bo (who was busy walking and drinking at the same time)...

...or even Bella...

...because not only was it a steamy day when it comes to insect love, it was a steamy day when it comes to weather...

...a day to just hang out and stay cool...

...and let someone know you love them. :-)

This could have been a pretty good photo...

...if it was in focus.

Same goes with this one...

And this one too...

...who is the one (partly) responsible for my camera's current state of wonkiness....the focus is always off...the camera can't quite figure out exposures after 2 pm...or when it's shady.......or just about any time in any light condition....

You see, Bo has an interesting quirk of grabbing things and then carefully carrying them away. When I was putting up birdhouses this spring, Bo wandered off with the level. When I was planting some copper iris, one of the irises disappeared with you know who (and that would not be his sister Tilly, my other gardening helper). In this photo you can see how sweetly protective Bo is of whatever he is temporarily holding hostage though.

When I was busy trying to get a dogwood into the ground a month back, Bo wandered off with my canvas bag with all my gardening tools (!!!!) and in the bottom of it was my camera. He's a pretty slow mover when he's got something in his mouth but I'm not sure how long he had that bag and it was heavy! And it's not like I haven't done things to that camera too (we both took a flying bellyflop into the creek a year or so ago) but I think the poor camera has had enough of the two of us and has just given up. Yet, I still use it......I haven't quite gotten around to upgrading to another for some reason. :-/

I can't get too upset with Bo though because there was that one time when he grabbed a bottle of water and brought it to me just when I needed it, kind of...

Speaking of bottles, bottles are his favorite thing to carry around. I had left a half-full gallon jug of water up the hill to use later (no water hook-up yet so I carry water jugs into the woods to water the few things I've planted). It came back down from the woods empty...

...and of course, carried further away.

Tilly has an interesting way of helping with what has to get done too. If I need something, Tilly is right on it. Literally.

As was this nursery spider, the hugest spider I have ever seen and it wouldn't move from its spot either, just like Tilly.

Tilly helped with planting a Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)...

...and a river birch and a dogwood and some other things. Sentry duty was sooooo tiring however, she fell asleep under each endeavor before it was completed. When it got to the mulch part of planting, I'd try to roll the sleeping Tilly out of the way but she would just roll right back. I ended up just mulching over her (just her feet in this photo but she had been more heavily mulched with the other things I planted!)...

Tilly is such a silly dog. I wish I could take better pictures of her (even if my camera wasn't so wonky) but she is a very unphotogenic dog. She surprised me with this one though. This photo was taken around the time of the Royal wedding and Tilly looks like she found the perfect British-style fascinator/hat under that honeysuckle.

Anyway, back to my struggles with my camera, not with gardening (entertained as I am by those two dogs). A couple days ago I saw the most beautiful matte blue green katydid. The color of that bug was just exquisite but even with heavy manipulation via Photoshop, I cannot get that bug to look like what I saw.

I took this photo last fall and I think it's the same style of katydid, just a completely different color. They both have the same unusual looking pink and green eyes. Did you know that some katydids are a brilliant pink? I'm still on the lookout for one of those.

Anyway, once again, an out of focus shot...but at least some of the blue green color comes through on this rear end shot of the katydid.....

...as does my initial "M." :-)

I guess the thing to do TODAY is to go out and get a new camera but unsurprisingly, I'm off to go stomp around on my land in Kansas instead (even if it is 95 degrees). I have a garden crew waiting for me and I know they are anxious to get started working. Camera purchasing will just have to wait yet another day. :-)