Flower Bed

Bees sleeping in flowers gives a new meaning to the term "flower bed."

I found this bumble bee sleeping in a sunflower this morning. The morning was cool, in the 60s. This picture was taken about 8:45 am. As the morning warmed up, bee took off and started his daily routine. At 8:30 pm, I found a bumble bee on the same flower, sleeping. I imagine it's the same one!

Turning around, I found this honey bee, sleeping in the allysum. From my limited web research, I find the bees do sleep in flowers - the male that doesn't have to return to the hive at night. Females go back to the hive. Also, found that only the female has a stinger, so sleeping bees can be approached, gently, and even lightly touched. I did not so experiment!

I learned that bees hold on with either their legs or their mandibles and tuck in for the night. The bees wings are still and they just sit there. As soon as the day starts to warm up the bees will begin stirring and again begin their search pollen or mates. Some say that the bee isn't sleeping but rather slowing down metabolism to save energy in the cool of the evening. I'm not sure how one would decide a bee is sleeping or saving energy.

I'll bet that honey bees have sweet dreams.....

This is one of the things I like to make with the blackberries that I harvest from my yard. This is the first berry smoothie of the year. Yum!
Fresh Blackberries
Fresh Clementine orange
Fresh Banana
Frozen pineapple pieces
Frozen Lambert cherries
Some nonfat plain yogurt
Some soy milk

All measures: your choice.
With my mix, it was about 160 calories, 8g fiber, 3g protien

White sunflower seeds?

I might not completely understand how the sunflower evolves into sunflower seeds. But, this looks like it will end up having white sunflower shells.

Let's keep our eye on this one.

Weather - got up to mid-80s today. At 7pm, breezy and comfortable - finally!!

When I went out to do my "count" for the Great Sunflower Project, I found this bee just sitting on the sunflower. I thought maybe he was dead from heat exhaustion as the temperature on Tuesday was 104 in the shade. And out in the backyard in the afternoon sun, well, it was a stunning experience. But, after awhile, the bee staggered and then perked up, flew away.

The count time is 15 minutes - watch your sunflowers and count the number of bees you see. Then report. I saw 4 wasps - they landed on the leaves and then looked like they were doing push-ups; didn't go to the blossom; 3 honey bees, and 1 bumble bee.

Here is a sunflower that is ready to bloom. Of the 18-20 seeds I planted in spring time, I have 6 strong plants and 3-4 smaller ones.

This type of sunflower produces a couple of blossoms on each stalk. They don't last long, and they don't appear to make seeds (but, I could be wrong about that). After they bloom, they sort of wither and droop.

Tuesday, the weather was horrendous - 104 in the shade. Wednesday, 100. It's been coming down a degree a day since then. Today it was 97. Night time getting down to 60s finally. I've been watering daily early morning 5-6 am, and late at night about 10 pm.

Low Tech Blackberry

The first to arrive! Sweet, lucious! By next week, I should have enough for a bowl or smoothie.

I have a blackberry patch at the edge of the back yard. Back in the early '90s, I would occasionally try to kill this patch of berries. Cut it down to nothing. Dig up parts. Eradication was my intention. But, the berries have more than 9 lives and kept returning annually.

And I love blackberries.

Made peace with the patch and now I only prune. In January. Cutting back the dead canes (that fruited last year) to ground. And pruning the rest to about 4-5 ft tall. This picture, to the left of the rr ties, showing the patch after this haircut.

Now, I harvest from end of July through mid-September. Yum!

Weather today - started in the low 60s and went to the upper 90s. A bit stifling. At 8:45 pm, it is still 89.

Mobile Gnome

And here we have the garden as it was when I finished the porch staining project. All put back together, with the little ol' gnome well hidden in the middle, a silent sentinnel for the plants.

Now, he is on the move again.

As C.S. Lewis once said, "If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a 'wandering to find home,' why should we not look forward to the arrival?”

It is painting house season, and so it goes. Not only is the gnome wandering, but so too the whole garden, so that it is safe from ladders, paint and other such gear. I moved all containers out into the yard. Used the hand truck for the heavy ones.

Being in a new positions in sun and shade, I am interested in how the new placement has impact on growth or demise of the plants. The raspberries, of course, aren't going anywhere. I didn't think about painting the house when I plunked them in the ground. Will see tomorrow if the ladders can safely stretch over them to reach the end gable.

The weather today was in the mid-80s. Clear. Right now, at 10pm, it is still low 70s. They say it will be triple digits on Sunday or Monday.

February Blooms in July

In February, I attended the Yard and Patio Show and picked up some bulbs. The weather outside, at the time, was freezing! Snow still an occasional happening. It was the best I could do to run outside, dig a quick hole for them, and plunk them in the ground and run back inside. Then hope for the best.

I bought 2-3 bulbs. Two stalks did emerge from the ground, but they looked like weeds. Before you knew it, one of the stalks got clipped by the lawn mower in late April. I took steps to protect the other one. And then waited.

I arrived home from work today, and voila! Here is the first lilly blossom. An asiatic lilly of some kind. I can't remember the name. The petals aren't the fancy kind with colorful freckles. Sort of a basic looking lilly, but big - about 4-5 inches across. As soon as I snapped pictures and put the camera away, along came a bee to check out the big flower.