Today I Received Two Gifts

First I liked to talk about the new country artist I have playing. Her name is Crystal Shawanda and she is from Canada and a Native American Indian. She has burst upon the music scene in the last week and was on the Grand Ole Opry this week. I expect this song playing to really climb the charts.

The gift I received were two fold in a new butterfly on the neighbors Sedum. It is a Silver Spotted Skipper (Epargyrews Clarus). A beautiful butterfly in Brown, White and Yellow.

You can really see the body in this view. It was very skittish but I got a few pictures. It flew away but returned for a face on shot.
The second gift today was a Praying Mantis the first of the year. I was walking my dog Jake around the house and saw my Sage plant shaking. There was no wind so something was going on. There he was climbing the Sage. This was next to the Sedum that I got yesterdays butterfly. I ran for the camera and here are the results. This guy was a poser and gave me a lot of chances to get it right.
His brown body which will hide him shortly stood out against the green sage.
I was able to get close for a nice head shot.
I came out after lunch to see if I could find him again and found him on my siding watching the plant he had been patrolling. What does it have hold of to stay like that?
These were two gifts I was happy to share with you.