Steven E. F. Brown

An afternoon trip to Oakland’s lovely Lakeside Garden revealed a busy world of tiny pollinators — bees, wasps, butterflies, beetles, flies, hummingbirds — at work. Other insects like flame-skimmer dragonflies (Libellula saturata) hang around the garden, too, and orange oleander aphids (Aphis nerii, not dancing today) infested some of the plants. A bride and groom, who’d gotten married at the nearby boathouse had their photos snapped among the flowers and foliage, and visitors to the two-day dahlia show also wandered through.