Monday, April 03, 2006

Apiary interests and a hat, to boot.

Yesterday was a gardening day. The monstrous, decrepit yucca was threatening people at the front door, and the vine with lovely pink flowers that won't actually climb by itself was becoming a woody firetrap. I spent a good 90 minutes hacking and chopping and stuffing the recycle bin full. As I walked around to see where more surgery would be required, a steady droning crept into my ears. The creosote bush in the front yard, the one that we brought home in a 3-gallon container in the trunk of the car 6 years ago which is now the size of a classic Volkswagen beetle, was buzzing insistently.

The bush is covered with tiny yellow flowers and tiny fuzzy catkins and lots of different bees! Generic, busy worker bees, nearly microscopic bee-like critters with slender bodies wrapped in tidy black and white stripes, and my favorite, a fuzzy-wuzzy with almost no-visible hind-end and a proboscis that strongly resembles a butterfly's tongue. This last bobs about as though it's a marionette, but you can't quite see the fishing line that must be jerking it around like a yo-yo. I absolutely could not get a shot of that one. Very shy, she is.

These ladies were completely absorbed in the task at hand. I dearly wished to get a shot of their bright orange pantalettes, but they foiled me. "No, thank you", they seemed to be saying, "we are not hoity-toity fashion models here to display the hottest modes de Paris. We have a queen to feed and chambers to build and larvae to cool. Don't get in the way." I tried not to, but I did capture a couple of candid shots.











Here are some of the backyard girls, hard at work on the neighbor's orange tree:




And here is another Soulemama/Lemonylemonade chapeau made with Lion Brand. It's a bit larger than I'd intended, so it'll go off to Dulaan with the previously-made clouds. (Dog mask courtesy of my husband, the former Cleveland Browns fan. Thanks sweetie.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those bee pictures are sweet! I am always surprised to see all the different varieties of bees (The poofy bumble bees being the most adorable in my opinion). And nice hat! I really like the yarn colour, lovely and warm.

Anonymous said...

I stumbled across your blog after blog leaping from someone elses, I think it went moopy & me, posie (rosie little things), little birds to yours from a comment you'd left. I wanted to see who you are as we share the same nickname, I get called kt (Katie without the vowels). Come and visit sometime, I'm still rebuilding the blog after stopping for quite some time.

Sarah said...

Thanks for the blog comment!

Love the hummingbird!

woof nanny said...

I love the dog mask! Thanks for the comment on my blog. How cool that someone directed you to me. I love that! I hope you come back again :)

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