While wandering among the Community Garden plots, my back yard and the Meewasin trail it seemed that I was prospecting for small pieces of nature that might elicit huge dividends in emotion. Kind of like mining for minerals.

In an attempt to emulate the big players in the mining industry such as Teck Resources, Barrick Gold, and Nutrien I studied extensively to understand their success. Turns out all you really need are:

With all of the resources in place for a successful mining operation we are off to extract nature’s beauty and package it into many pixels for your viewing pleasure.

An old seed pod that tried hard to turn into a hairy fish.

Notice the Haskap berries in the background of this image. As I was cleaning the berries I noticed a number of extra protein sources that seemed anxious to have a photo taken. This Green Stink Bug just kept a slow pace as it moved over the berries before I escorted it outside.

A number of tiny spiders ended up in the basket as well. This Theridion Spider was almost transparent with a body about 3mm. long. Ya gotta love having that many eyes.

This Common Drone fly was slurping down some flower nectar. It seemed to be emulating a wasp with its colour scheme choice.

Common Grackles have been cleaning my bird feeders out every few days.

No that is not a giant mosquito with a blood meal. It is an Ichneumonid Wasp on a Milkweed plant.

Two types of Milkweed in the Community Garden were planted to encourage Monarch butterflies. My heart really sores when I hear a symphony of sound coming from a ton of insects buzzing around on a warm sunny windless morning.

This very hairy bee looks like it had a rough night. Needs a hair do.

This variety of Milkweed has a beautiful red flower.

While searching the Community Garden raspberry patch for pollinators I came across this Bronze Jumping Spider just sitting on a leaf waiting for some food to come close. Can you imagine if it was 7 feet long instead of 7 mm.?

Notice the reflection of my head in the eyes. Just glad it didn’t jump onto me.

This small transparent fly was sitting on a leaf just warming in the sun.

This hairy bee must have been to the barber compared to the first one.

This poor old dandelion had seen better days but managed to hold onto all its seed copters.(hmmm…didn’t know seed copters was a thing eh).

Some apples just starting their life journey.

Makes me jealous of nature’s ability to create textures and colours in leaves. Might have to try this on a wooden vessel.

A delightful flower.

Someone planted a Burr Oak in the Community Garden. This Burr Oak Gall is from a wasp that laid an egg on the leaf.

Happy mining folks.