I couldn't quite force myself out of bed at the crack of dawn today, so I went to Beechwood in the evening instead. It's a different feeling -- more people going by, more heat, no dew, different light altogether. The ground is quite dry and hard at the moment so I didn't accomplish much in the way of pulling plants, but I wandered around and took lots of pictures. (Ninety-nine, in fact. If I'd noticed that I'd have taken one more.)

I saw marvellous things. When I opened the equipment box I discovered black ants had laid a million eggs in a couple of little niches, and the ants were suddenly in a great panic to move them away from this unexpected human threat. I apologized as best I could, but they didn't stop.

See -- black ants! Not those evil little red ones! Last year in early June I found a swarm of flying ants in the same location. Relatives?

Continuing with the bugs, I saw a ladybug larva:

(It's on my hat there.) This is the larva of the "multi-coloured Asian ladybug." Very close to it I found a ladybug pupa:

I don't know what this is, but isn't it stunning?

Have a closer look at that flower:

Apparently it sends out some little purple flowers later:

I'll have to go back and take better pictures of that stage. There were several of these in one place.

A butterfly enjoying the sun:

Back on Marnie's Point, I pulled up that thistle and a few other things. Hm, the loosestrife seems to have had its flowers mysteriously cropped. Perhaps a local expert came by to offer a diagnosis? Inquiring minds want to know. I also saw some butter-and-eggs:

Isn't that delicate? Isn't that exquisite? You know what's coming, right? It's an alien, and I'll have to think about removing it. Later.

This goldenrod had a lot of gall:

A cup plant's flower bud nestled like a green marble in those leaves:

I like the reddish edging on the leaves:

Most are still at that stage, but for some reason this one has raced ahead of its friends and opened already:

I ended my evening by scrubbing more graffiti off the signs. This was just proper graffiti that was no match for Vim and a wet rag. I discovered the other day that an SOS pad takes the silver paint off without apparently damaging the finish, but it's very slow. Next time I have six hours to spare I'll get right at that.

Finally, a public service announcement: if you've lost your keys, they're sitting on one of the rocks that mark the Beechwood wetland area. Someone must have found the keys and put them there, but I'm not optimistic that the owner will notice. Maybe I could tape a colourful sign on the rock?