Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies, OH MY: August 2013

The last day of August and summer. I took a walk through my garden and found a few things that brighten my day. This is the saddest part of summer. It hasn't been the best year for butterflies. Last year my butterfly bush was covered. This year I saw lots of Cabbage White....

I saw four flying around. Then I found this wonderful spider!

This is a Black & Yellow Garden Spider. A female because they are bigger than the male. I love the zig-zag white silk that she decorates her nest with. I went back out to check to see if she had any suitors but alas I found none....but she still has time to mate.

My Pond frogs were out sunning themselves.... I have three but only saw these two today.

I love my pond frogs!

On around I walked and looked......

Another Cicada shell. I still get a thrill out of finding them.....LOL

Then I stopped at the butterfly bush hoping for something exciting.....and there she was....a Praying Mantis

She is just hanging there under the flower, just waiting for dinner to land.

It wasn't long when I saw the Silver-spotted Skipper land and I could see her get ready.....

Look at the next few pictures as the Skipper gets close to the Praying Mantis....

She slowly changes her position to get ready for the attack...

Almost ready to grab the Skipper........

When off the Skipper flew......

And back to watching and waiting for the next victim....

She didn't have long to wait when a Cabbage White landed....I thought she is going to have dinner now.....

They are really close....She is getting in position.....I just knew she was going to get the White......

So close....I thought she would jump on the White any minute!

But the White moved again and then flew off to another flower blossom....

No dinner for the Praying Mantis.....

The bush in the bottom left is the Butterfly bush that this drama took place. As you can see my garden is showing the signs of summers end...

Can't wait till Fall.....Love the changing colors of the leaves on the trees...hope to have some good pictures for you soon.....

I think the Ross County Fair is the best county fair in the state. Maybe it is because it is the fair that I have grown up going to....When I was a little girl, my Dad would take us out to the fair on Chillicothe day and we would go through all the exhibit buildings and see all the animals.

There is only one of these buildings left.
It now exhibits antique collections, which is very interesting.

Then we would get to ride a ride. What a fun time. When I had my daughter and had moved back to Ross County, I had a 4H group and we camped out at the fair for almost 10 years. Now my daughter has 3 children of her own and we all went out to the fair.....

We went out early before the crowds. You can't see the race track anymore...as you can see the large fence now surrounding it.

No one here...love to walk around when no one or very few are up and out. We use to love to get breakfast.

Pigs, Cows and Sheep, Oh My

All the barns are so nice now. Easy to walk through and enjoy the livestock.

And of course the petting....a must for any kid....

There is now hand sanitizer around the barns to clean those hands off after touching every goat, sheep, cow, pig in those barns.....

As we walked from the livestock barns to the rabbit barn, we noticed that the trailer park area had street signs....

That all the roads were paved and each with their own street name...when we camped to find our trailer....
it is the 4 road from the horse barn..turn at the blue trailer and we are the 3rd on right from the one with the flag....LOL....One could get lost and many times I did....LOL.....

The Rabbit and Chicken barn.....

Rooster, chickens,

Beautiful Turkey...

and ducks....and of course more petting!!!!

Then the rabbits...

My daughter tells her daughter about when she showed rabbits for 4H at the fair....lots of memories and good times...

Still has a good friend's name of the row of Champions in the Rabbit barn!

Then a stop at the horse barn...

Now to the Home Arts building...

My favorite...so many different things to see..
there are paintings, photography, needle point, collections, gift wrapping, jewelry making, wood making, and so much more to see....

Quilts and Canning

I love the old dishes on display too.

Now to the Flowers and school building...

Flowers for the flower show judging...the schools along the side walls.

This was a cute tea cup with flowers exhibit.

These are peacock eggs... I had never seen any before...

All kinds of vegetables and even hay!

Some winners....

We had such a good time that we went back a second day and this time took the twins so they could ride some rides!

So through the tunnel we went again...

First the boys had to have tattoos!!!!

So many to choose from.....

The twins picked the red truck....

And the carousel....

My granddaughter picked the ride I always picked and think is my favorite to this day!!!!!

The Round-up....

The in the Commercial building we got everyone bags from the Library table and filled it with

goodies....pencils, rulers, tablets, key chains, bracelets....such wonderful treasures to look at when we get home.......

But the two best things about the fair is the food! All kinds and the smell can drive me crazy!

But somehow we make a decision as to what we want to eat, and eat, and well maybe take some home, to eat later! LOL

On a hot day.....yummy

This one is eating a fried candy bar! OH MY

and now the other best thing about the fair........
Is running into friends, some you haven't seen in a while and some you might have just saw yesterday!!!!!