I don't know what this insect is, but it was certainly beautiful as it "worked" the miniature daisy.

Late yesterday afternoon I went out to look at my front yard. This is the year for it. This is the year my front yard is full and fluffy with plants running into each other the way I'd hoped they would.

I'm the kind of person who likes all my food touching. When I go to a cafe that serves vegetables and they bring the plate out and the vegetables are in tiny little bowls: cabbage in one, greens in another and corn in still another; I immediately turn the little bowls upside down so that all my vegetables can touch each other.

I never really thought about it before. That's the way I like my garden, too.

When I planted my front yard garden five years ago, all the plants were like the vegetables in the bowls. One plant here, another entirely different plant there. Nobody was touching. That's the way it is when you first put your landscaping in.

Now some people like for their gardens to be like that. It's a more formal approach and when you come right down to it I guess you can tell a lot about a person by how their garden grows.

If you want your life to be orderly and predictable that's bound to show in the way you weed eat your front yard. On the other hand, if there's a bottle tree and some kind of funky metal thing stuck in a corner you can be pretty sure that the person who tends that garden likes surprises and welcomes a day that's open for whatever may come.