Cool photos, Trudy. The "Butterfly in Motion" really captures the fast-paced activity of these critters!

Trudy love the butterfly pics as butterfly's are my fave. Have them on my kitchen curtains and shower curtain, key chain, etc. Also like Carol's pics of the koi yours are great too.

Great roses, Klondike!  Those banana skins must be good for them.

Around here, rose-growing has been very difficult the last two summers, due to a huge invasion of Japanese beetles.  I don't have roses, but they have eaten half the leaves off my big mountain ash tree.  People with roses are fighting a losing battle, too.

Will have to try banana skins next. No roses this year, just the bush growing, no blooms. But I do not do anything special for the rose bush - if they bloom fine, if not there's always next year. Long as my rhodi blooms every year along with my periwinkle bush I'm happy.

Here's more about the Japanese beetle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_beetle

They are actually quite attractive-looking bugs, very shiny and copper-colored with lovely green trim.  But they are spreading throughout the country, and really do a lot of damage.  The wet summers we have had the past two years have apparently favored them.  Besides roses and mountain ash, they eat plum and cherry trees, grapevines, and linden trees, among others.  Many linden trees along our streets are half-defoliated, too.  The beetles like the sun, so they start from the top down.  If you see a tree with yellowing at the top and outsides of the branches, it's likely Japanese beetles have been at work.

I can just see that little tree frog with his little sticky toes on the glass, catwoods!

The weather here has been unseasonably cool for several days, too.  I am enjoying not being hot, but it has put me in mind of fall (already!)  The days are shortening rapidly; it's dark noticeably earlier each night.  All the berries on the mountain ash tree have turned bright orange.  More of my yard is in shade each day, too, as the sun gets lower. 

The sandhill cranes have moved out of the marshy areas where they nest and can be seen feeding in fields in the early mornings.  Behind the row of arbor vitae, my lot borders an athletic field.  The cranes are there at dawn each day, trumpeting!  With the windows open, we certainly don't need an alarm clock, because they must be some of the loudest birds on the planet.  They are getting restless; I think they can feel it too, although they are usually here until mid-October.

Not a single redwing blackbird or grackle has been at my feeder in at least two days.  These birds do this every year--suddenly vanish around the beginning of August.  I'm not sure if they begin their migration, or just hang out somewhere else.  Maybe they eat something different at this time.

Thank you for that great picture, Klondike.  The rose is certainly well-named--it makes a person feel cool just to look at those white blossoms and dark foliage.  (It's back to hot and humid here, so cool is appreciated.)  And I am almost certain that I can smell those roses!