All a Buzz

Only one honeybee agreed to sit for this photo.  You'll find her to the left and
down a bit from center.

It was time to meditate.  The usual time is much earlier in the day, more formal and less active.  But the bees were calling me and I caved.

There is nothing more sublime, more meditative, than sitting on the ground and inspecting the Salvia (Blue Hill) along with the honeybees.  The actual things I get to do today are snip off the spent strands of blooms to encourage the plant to make more.  Toward the end of summer, there are fewer flowers available for the girls in their foraging for nectar and pollen. The sacredness of this little task surrounded me, opened my heart to overflowing and blessed me with honeybee love.  I was all a buzz.

HELP (Again)!

These tiny fingers keep adding another blossom out
on the end

This morning it was a Hummingbird perch.  Yesterday a pair of Goldfinches rested there.  Everyday, all day it is an extremely spindly, five-foot high flowering perennial with two-and-a-half-inch wide clumps of purple blossoms.  They began growing after I planted a "Bee Friendly" mix of flower seeds.

Leaves are sparse, slender,  sawtoothed,
rough to touch.  Stems are squarish and
also rough.

When creating a flower arrangement is one of my Things I get to do today, these naturally find their way in--perfect in all ways since they add a punch, have a slender stem, and have no leaves below or above the water line in the vase.

BUT WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY CALLED?  Please folks--it's your turn to write.  Someone out there must know what these are!

And Nan, a friend in California, tells me they are Verbena Bonariesis.  Looked it up and it's a match!  Thanks, Nan.

Bee Crazy

A random "weed" fennel that was
allowed to carry on

Most of the showy flowers of summer have fled from the stage.  The honey bees were in love with many of them.  As my yard became less and less diverse in blooms, I wondered what the honey bees would do.

Missy Pollen Britches on the right is loaded to go

And then one morning quite early when Things I get to do today had taken me on a tour of the Northwest corner, I found that the fennel was all a-buzz.  A gentle, relaxing breath filled my body and found its release in knowing that those wonderfully resourceful honey bees will always know where to find nectar and pollen for their hive.

Breakfast is served!

The current bee favorites beyond the fennel are the gloriously generous flowers of rudebeckia and hardy geranium. Check your yard right now for fall flowers that bees love.  As long as we all grow a crazy variety of interesting plants and flowers, we will contribute to colony strength and order.  Bee (be) crazy.

The Bees Want You to Know

They're smarter than you think.  If you already are aware of the magnificent process of honey bees, be prepared:  they are still so much beyond what we understand.

Maiden bee on the top right coming in for a landing

Honey Bees love purple flowers.  Their least preferred is red.  It's nice that the balance of Nature leaves those to the humming birds.

A thought about Drones : Drones are not do-nothing free-loaders.  Drones have a critical task in the hive. A Drone tends the nursery area of the hive, singing to the maturing eggs, larva and pupa.  The Drones sing bee wisdom,  bee awareness, bee history through the vibration of their song to the next generation of honey bees. They are communicating all that is needed for the life of the new hatchlings.

Cardoon is a current favorite

In regular commercial bee management, drone eggs/drone cells in the brood are removed with the thought that they are consuming food that would be better left for us to eat.  The result is that each generation of bees is weaker and dumber than the one before since they have not been reared with in the true bee wisdom way.  Colony Collapse Disorder is the result.

Gathering pollen and nectar

Time for all of us who care about the earth to find a spot in our yard or on our roof for a box of bees, making a home for a swarm from the local area.  And then just let them run their show the way they've done for thousands of years.  Things I get to do today:  add Warre' Bee Hive to my wood projects list.

More info: Spirit Bee with Jacqueline Freeman.

Hyssop Honey

The Children of Israel used it for a paint brush.  I'm beginning to see why.  A month or so ago Things I get to do today included learning  more about Camphor Hyssop.  All I knew before I read about it in the seed catalog is summed up in this post's first sentence--used as a paint brush.

Some of these purple brushes are nearly 6" long

The bees it was supposed to attract had not yet found it or its nectar was not yet available.  But now, now the flowers are long and fuzzy, and the whole nearly-seven-feet-tall grouping of perennial hyssops are humming with the prospect of honey.  First thing in the morning until last warmth of the evening you'll find golden, furry honey bees from my neighbor's hive collected around the purple columns, pushing their eager tongues deep into the micro throats of this delicate flower from the mint family that grows outside and up against my living room window--a perfect viewing area. I wonder if there is even a teaspoon of honey altogether here for their efforts.  It matters not to the bees.  The 30 or so girls working the blooms this morning are finding what they are looking for.

Buzzing Berries

They're good fresh. They're even better in cobbler.  I've made a deal with my neighbor's honeybee colony:  they make the marionberries, and I'll make the dessert.

Honeybee berry builder

My little heart skipped and danced thinking about Things I get to do today that will soon include picking marionberries.  These glorious, winged, buzzing sweethearts reminded me that the process was well underway.  Big bumble bees of some sort were assisting. Interesting to see how they shared duties:  the bumbles worked only the barely-open blossoms, while the honeys liked the extended-petal versions.  They've got it covered.

Sweet assistance

I'll make sure I have my vanilla ice cream recipe chilled for along side the steaming, golden, berry-bubbling dessert.  We're inviting guests.  Sign up now.

Honey in the Morning

Got a new ring tone for my front door bell.   ". . .Honey in evening.  Honey at supper time."  OK, so I stretched the facts a smidgen.  My door bell still "ding, dongs" like most.  What is unique is the fragrant greeting when you come inside.

"Be my little honey and love me all the time."

On a ledge by my front door rests the honeycomb that broke loose in my sister's hive last fall.  We didn't reattach it, and the bees have gone their way with the cold.  This piece of their comb remains.  I've placed it where it can greet all of us as we come and go.  The smell from this honeycomb is complex:  a great variety of sweet and delicate florals all mixed together.  As I breath it in, my loveliest of Things I get to do today is to see in my mind's mural the myriad of flowers that were brought together by the honeybees for this comb.  It spreads gloriously for miles--honey in the morning.

Blazing Berries

Fall is gosh-awesome gaudy.  No doubt about it.  Why in my yard alone there is enough color to make Tammy Faye Baker look pale.

Barberry

Knock-your-socks-off gorgeous in the far corner by the hen pen is barberry with it electrically sharp spines.  Bright, lipstick red leaves will bring the whole plant to center stage by Thanksgiving.

Harlequin Glory-bower or Clerodendrum

For now it is watched over by the Clerodendrum whose elegantly, old-fashioned-sweet summer blossoms somehow translate into crazy jester hats for Halloween and fall.

Porcelain Berry Vine

The summer preview for Porcelain Berry Vines is more about sound and honey.  The tiny, barely-noticeable clumps of flowers are honeybee magnets, causing the whole vine over our back patio to humm-m-m-m during daylight all summer long.  But fall pops out these purple, pink, blue and gray jewel "beads" that flickers find tasty.









Beauty berries are just natural show-offs.  A table center piece with orange-ripe persimmons and clumps of these near-fluorescent berries is stunning.  In January the bush is a banquet for migrating birds.




There are few words to paint adequately the portraits for these wonders so letting the pictures speak for themselves is one of the Things I get to do today.