A couple weeks ago I was in the kitchen and whatever it was in the corner next to the desk did not look right for just a bit of the debris that has been following me in from the garden. So I looked closer. Then went for the camera and the bug jar. It was a scorpion that had managed to get its tail tangled in a spider web. Since it was still alive, I got it into the bug jar after I got its photo and then took it out to the front hill for release. The scorpion looked a little worse for the experience, but maybe was the winner of the battle. Some time later I went to sweep up and found a dead spider in that same corner. Perhaps the scorpion managed to sting his opponent before he was snagged in the web.
We seem to find one of these somewhere in the house every few years. One prior visitor had gotten its sting hooked in the family room carpet and the threads needed to be cut to free the critter. A couple others just appeared in the middle of the hallway or even an upstairs bedroom. How they get to where we find them remains a mystery.
Yesterday afternoon, I found this little critter lounging in the sunlight streaming though the panes of the front door. He was way too comfortable to run off right away, so I had time to get the camera and take a few photos before going to find a container to use for the capture and release effort that followed. He was about three inches long, most of that being tail. When I got him outside in full sun, the colors of the scales on his back were apparent – yellow and blue – at least for a second or two before he dashed away.
Aphids attacked one patch of corn and the sunflowers growing nearby. They didn’t seem to really do much damage other than cosmetic. So when I went to check how the corn was ripening, the first thing I noticed were the ugly black spots of the aphids. Then I saw some other much bigger and ugly looking bugs sitting on the growing ears. So back to the house for the camera and bug jar. I didn’t know what it was, but I was afraid it might be something nasty and wanted to get an identification. After paging through a number of references, I finally found a picture that matched. It was only bad if one was an aphid. It was the larval form of the multicolored Asian ladybeetle. Although ugly, it turns out to be one of the good guys. 
I should not have been happy to see this critter on the corn. But he just seemed too pretty to do anything but get his picture. He matched the color of the leaves perfectly.
For the past week or so, Peter Rabbit has been visiting our garden. I have tried hunting him with the camera, but he is very shy and uncooperative. The color of his fur seems a perfect match for the dry ground, so when he is still, he disappears into the background unless his white tail is visible. The fence around the garden is supposed to be rabbit and deer fencing. It has very small spacing at the bottom to keep the little critters out. However, I found a few places where the ground did not meet the bottom of the fence and have since filled in those spots. Of course the gate presents easy access to the cottontail bunnies we have here. There is more than enough room for them to get under. In fact, a few nights ago as we finished dinner, we looked out and saw the rabbit was between the garden and the house. Before I could grab the camera to get a picture, the rabbit dashed under the gate and ran into the garden — and apparently escaped through one of those low spots on the other side. So far, I don’t think Peter has really done more than munched on a couple low hanging strawberries as they ripened. I suspect we will be playing hide and seek in the garden for weeks to come.