pretty things

There have been too many things going on for me to spend much time observing properly, but life goes on. I got a hummingbird feeder for mothers' day, which is now hanging in the yard. I have always thought that my yard is too wooded to attract hummers, but a colleague convinced me that it was worth a try. I hung a big pot of pink petunias next to it, to add a little more attractive color. We'll see what happens.
I have been seeing and/or hearing orioles almost every day for the past week or so. I wonder if there are more around this year, or if I am just more aware of them.
Here are some photos of pretty things I've seen recently.
The jack-in-the-pulpit is in my yard. I have them all over the place - small ones and big ones - and here is a cool fact about them. When they are young, the flowers on the spadix (jack) are mostly male, and as the plant gets older, more and more of the flowers are female. See, the spadix - the part inside the striped spathe (pulpit) - is covered in tiny flowers, both male and female. The proportions of male to female flowers alter with age. Cool, hunh?
There are lady slippers scattered throughout the woods behind my house. Sometimes all I see are the leaves, but today I saw this beautifully formed bud. These flowers are very hard to grow and to transplant, and some species are endangered, so don't ever pick them.
This tiger beetle caught my eye because of its exceptional color. It was hanging out among the dead brown leaves on the forest floor, so it showed up quite well. When it saw me looking at it, it went down under the leaves, but I managed to gently uncover it to get this photo, so I could ID it.