Bumbling

I have attracted hundreds of bumble bees to my yard this summer.  Lots of other bees and pollinators as well, although very few honey bees.  Our honey bees come from Europe originally, and perhaps our diet is just too rich for them because they are disappearing like snowflakes on a late spring day.  Beekeepers are studying their demise with much concern.

Click on photos for close-ups.

Many of the fat bumblers are still lingering as fall arrives to catch nectar from the last of the cosmos, zinnias, celosia, lavender, sage and their real favorite, a variegated "cat mint" shrub.  Some, just like us, wear their groceries on their hips.

They no longer buzz noisily as I pass and their darting is more like heavy floating from blossom to blossom.  They actually look a little drunk when in reality they are just cold.  

In the early colder mornings as I pass they rest covered in dew, comatose on the blossoms.  I think they look as if some craft person has stuck them there for decoration.  The bumblers are different in appearance if you are not afraid to look closely.  Some dressed in shiny black bottoms and others a yellow furry coat all around.

And some I have discovered have attitude!

Hootenanny.

When fall arrives I am always surprised how the long angles of the sun can make everything so crisp and clean and new looking.  It is as if I am staying in a new place.  The sun has ended with its hot burn lighting making everything flat and bright and is pulling out all the soft hues and new gel filters even before the leaves begin to change colors.  That hot orb paints the last of my autumn blossoms with deep lavish colors giving me memorable visions to hold me over during the winter months.  The wind blows billowing clouds back and forth and even sometimes lets them pause long enough to allow some rain to fall.  The musty smells of the forest floor are dry and dusty this week and ground birds are noisily tossing leaves all around looking for the really fat fellows hiding below.   Squirrels chase each other scratching the back of the tree up one side and down the other as their larder must be filled.  The crickets sing, but sort of sorrowfully, as if they know their time is short.  Spiders hang out by my windows and doors trying to sneak their way inside before the cold comes. 


Last night deep in the woods as the fog formed over this river in the photo above, I heard the owls singing their autumn song.  I have my own front row seat to the regularly held Autumn Hootenanny just outside my bedroom windows as Halloween approaches.

Hot and Heavy

This summer heat and humidity has meant that I can go outside and just stand in the shade and within minutes sweat starts to trickle down my temple and into my eyes and ears.  Really.  I have showered so many times a day that I am worried I may start growing fungus all over!

Then, as I am pulling three foot weeds (which are now growing a foot a day) and deadheading flower blossoms (which bloom in the morning, sigh with limp petals in mid-day and begin to drop crispy petals by late afternoon), I have to be careful or I encounter these yellow fellows below.  I have destroyed a few of their webs unintentionally.  They build the strongest and largest capture units I have ever seen and there is nothing more breathtaking than getting some sticky web across your face or in your hair while you are focused on something else!  This garden tenant was really this large!

GOTCHA!

Angels Today

I took this photo at sunset this past November as I was returning to the house to check on the slow cooker in the kitchen.  These were little midges (tiny flies) dancing their last dance of fall celebration in the warm evening light before cold winter's arrival.  They were not aware that the world was tilting and the sun's angle was changing and the air was slowly cooling.  Or if they were aware, they were clearly focused on the happiness in this moment of dancing in the golden light.  They look like holiday angels to me now, and so I will post this, such an unexpected photo, at this holiday time of year to remind us to focus on the moment and not what lies ahead or behind.  If there is such a thing as Holy Light...these photos have come close to capturing it for me.

Contrast

This old Mother Nature always gets it right. While we spend our energies and our focus on pointing out how we are so different, she shows us how beautiful we are when we come together, when we help each other, and when we share.


I truly wish we could all be this way and be willing to compromise just a little in life.  Try to understand why your enemy is so adamant in his ignorance.  Try to understand how Pretty Patty is so much an airhead, but she does smell nice.  This stinky garlic blossom is so lovely next to this swallowtail butterfly.  They have worked it out.  Why can't we?

Here are two nectar suckers sharing the same Echinacea blossom.  There is enough for all.  Really, there is, we just have to be a bit more frugal.

Share something with someone today.

In the Heat of the Summer I get Visitors

As the summer dials up the oven temperature all the little creepy crawlies (entomological treasures for some and 'unable to ignore' pests for others) have begun arriving along with their families.  While hiking in a nearby woods I came across this little 'nest' of orange baby spiders.  I could find momma no where in sight.  I blew gently on the group and they spiraled down like miniature parachute jumpers in a delicate dance closer to the ground, but soon returned to their home when the carbon dioxide 'breeze' stopped.  (Click on photo for closer views, of course, and remember they are just photos!)

This little congregation of aphids in the photo below was holding their late spring war convention in the green lobby of my back yard the other day. They were discussing strategies and priorities I am sure.  Which area to invade first might also cross their tiny red brains.  I didn't kill them because they were meeting far from my flower beds...perhaps planning their attack on the newly planted roses?  I leaned closer but could hear no battle plans.

As I my face filled their blue sky, oddly enough, they look like they were circling the wagons preparing for a bird or wasp attack perhaps.


And of course, I cannot leave this post without posting at least one photo of the hundreds (thousands?) of pollinators that are humming around my sage and my lavender and everything else that has blooms.  They are drinking all the summer honey wine and usually hanging on in a gluttonous stupor the next morning covered in the mist of cool dew.  These guys hit the bar all day everyday.

Japanese Orgies

Japanese Beatles

barely exotic

Cling in opalescent disregard.

They dine with

refined tastes 

on only rose petals

and crepe myrtle leaves.

They don't speak the

language

ignoring my pleas.

Holding open orgies

between the petals of

the pink Savoy Hotel 

and

too drugged to see

 my dismay

at the confetti-ed

evidence 

they always leave behind

when the party

at long last ends.

Love that broach, roach.

This photo was taken about a week ago. I love this mum for its cone shaped petals and its pink tinge on the border petals. It almost looks like a dahlia. I guess I really love this mum for its ability to use jeweled accessories so dramatically ;-). I have searched to identify this beetle without success. I have seen it before in my garden and it looks like it is searching for small insects inside the flower. (When I went out two days later just before the cold norther, this long beetle was still there!) Click on the photo for a better look.