is there nothing new under the sun?

I am curious about raspberries, and how the fruit develops. I’ve chronicled them before – here, and here – those were the purple-flowering kind. Today I was looking at the ordinary white-flowering kind – also known as the instruments of Satan, intent on taking over the universe, starting with our property.

Spiky green conglomeration. That green stuff is going to somehow swell up and turn into a tasty morsel of goodness.

Stamens drop out and turn to ooze; the green bits are swelling at the base.

The developing fruit.
For what it’s worth, I don’t recommend trying to photograph birds with an 85mm macro lens from 50 feet away.

Super super cropped, this is the result. Yeah, awesome, isn’t it? Actually, thanks to that sweet yellow cap, it was enough for me to ID it with my handy dandy…(drum roll, please)…

99-cent bird app!

The virtues of not mowing the lawn: grass gone to seed.

Fannnntastic.
There are times when I wish I could more easily go farther afield than just our property – as lately I’ve been feeling a tiny bit ho-hum about things. Like I’ve seen it all before. I know that just a mile from here – less! – I’ll see entirely new species. But I didn’t feel like going too far today – for one thing, I did this workout at the gym this morning that rendered me largely immobile this afternoon. And, it was raining off and on.
During a brief spot of sun, I scooted outdoors, hoping to find inspiration. I came across something I was pretty sure I hadn’t seen before.

The first one was to show myself, for later when consulting a field guide, that this has a flat stem. The second was to show both the flower and fruit.
Then, later, rummaging around in last year’s pictures, looking for a particular photo, I stumbled across this, from July 10:

Huh. Same thing, same shots.
But then I’ll come across something like this – I have no idea what it is. I am transported back to age five: my favorite party dress, which was of little pink and yellow flowers. 
I also don’t know who this is:

Who needs space aliens, when you have these?