Part of the Today in Our Backyard series.

Kamala grew some Praying Mantids to later release them to eat the aphids that are infest our yard during the summer.

Unfortunately, of the 2 dozen or so mantids that were grown, on 2 1/2 survived. Of the 2 1/2 that were released the 1/2 Mantid ate one of the whole ones. (they are known to be eat each other)

Macro of a spider in our front yard.

I'm still trying to figure out what type of spider this is. We have them everywhere in our yard. This particular one strung its webbing to from the electrical line, about 7 feet above, to several plants below.

I wished most of it was in focus but you can still see what it is doing.

Shot with a Panasonic Lumix LX2