End of October

It is the season to to shift attention again, from the large effects and colors to the smaller details.  For example, this is just one of the two praying mantises, one in the juniper and the other in the yew.  While I will admit they are not small, when the garden is full of foliage and flowers, they are much harder to see or find. I always have felt a certain magic when I have found just one of these, and this year there were two within a few feet of each other.  How can you tell which are the males or females?

I have seen the same yellow beetles with black spots that I saw last year in Fall Details. This year there were a couple on a spike of salvia.  The camera didn't focus on the beetle, but on parts of the flower, so it is a bit fuzzy.  You can barely see the second one further down on the stalk.  These seem to drink the nectar from the flowers, but I still haven't been able to find out anything more about what they are. 

The final picture is a plant that first arrived as a stowaway in a pot with another plant.  The sorrel is usually considered a weed, but this variety with bright red veins is a small, low to the ground grower..  I have not had any problems with it becoming a pest, even though it is a self-seeder. It has been easy enough to dig it out where I don't want it. So, it stays in many places, and probably it could be harvested and used for soup.  We tried sorrel soup one but didn't find it very interesting.