a few critters

The other day I spent way too much time on my knees in the lawn, pulling crabgrass by hand. In the front yard this is boring, and gets me curious or amused looks from passerby. In the back, I relax and admire the garden, and see a surprising amount of little live things, being so long near the ground to observe. A fat brown skink on concrete retaining wall by the gladiolas:

mud dauber or paper wasp- not sure which- on my asiatic lily

I like the wolf spiders, jumping spiders and orb-weavers, but this one gave me a turn. I was afraid it might be a brown window or a brown recluse- but I searched online and it's the broad-faced sac spider. The bite can hurt like a bee or wasp sting, but isn't deadly to humans.

More little leaf hoppers. I've mostly seen gray ones this year, or plain brown. None of the brilliant cobalt blues. But found these with candy stripes.

I'm sorry to say this last photo was taken just after I smacked it.