When I went out to the garden this morning, I was greeted by a couple of surprises. First, the iris that has been threatening to bloom for the past couple of weeks is finally blooming. These were given to me by my friend Peg, from her yard, and they look really nice.
The second surprise was that when I looked at the irises, I thought I saw a fungus growing on them. On closer inspection, I saw that there was a
cicada that recently crawled out of the ground and was climbing up the iris. A couple quick facts: cicadas are harmless, they have red eyes, and taste like canned asparagus.
I introduced the cicada to my daughter. At first she wasn't too receptive to it but once I explained that it will be singing to us in a couple of weeks, she seemed fine and even a little interested. These are part of brood XIII, a 17 year cicada that is emerging across parts of the Midwest. Chicago is getting a little nutty about them.
This one is a lot smaller than the ones I remember as a kid. With it's green coloring and red eyes, it is also more attractive than the black and gray counterparts I am used to seeing back east. I am sure, as more emerge, I'll be posting more photos. Hopefully I'll improve my close-up photography skills as well - sorry these are a little blurry.
I am still not sure what color they are. They seem a little brown, a little red and yellow, and a little purple, almost puce. Now, this is coming from a guy that's color blind so I guess I don't really know what color they are and this is all just brought on by psychedelic flashback. Any thoughts? 
I moved them this year, closer to the edge of the patio. I was afraid they wouldn't like it but they seem to be doing fine. IF you read back, these were first given to us the year we moved in by my friend Peg. In addition to be a nice reminder of her in the garden, they look great, regardless of not being your typical irisy color. I think next year that I want to put some out front and show them off a bit. 
On another note, the photos are being taken up a notch at the Tiny Bungalow (at least in their technical quality) as my brother was kind enough to give us one of his nice cameras (a Nikon D70) as he didn't need it anymore. 
