01/24/2023 unauthorized entry

I was putting some books on my desk shelf this evening when in my peripheral vision I noticed more purple plant growing light visible than should be. I keep a towel over it to protect our eyes.
I examined the gap in the cover more closely and realized Shackleton was curled up contentedly on the heating pad, which is set to a cozy 85 degrees F. There’s even a bit of dust (spilled potting soil).
Shackleton napping peacefully with the last unsprouted pepper pot, bathed in a purple glow.
Busted, buddy. The nice thing about this tray is that I can slide it out to check on seedlings AND clever cats.
He did a big back arching stretch of casual innocence.
Shackleton emerges from his vacation tray, complete with unnecessary UV exposure. 🙄
Paula moved Shacks back to his actual cat heating pad on the couch. I put a bunch of empty pots in the tray with the one seedling pot and put more up in front of the towel-curtain, as well as a series of inconvenient containers. Hopefully this will persuade Shacks to stick to his heated bed or at least clogging up our amplifier with his hair.

Oh well, a second move

It turns out where I put the Arkansas yuccas from home (who got trenched during solar install) was too close to the path we’re making. I dug them up again and moved them to a safer place. It is supposed to rain a lot this week and be relatively cool so hopefully they survive this move. You can see one by my wrist and one by my ring fingertip.

Chosen!! A tale of bumbling

I am very honored to announce I have received one of the highest endorsements of my garden I can think of: we have a bumblebee nest!

They are in the wren house, in the abandoned nesting material.
They look so much less round here than when out pollinating flowers, so much so that I tried to get closer for a confirmation photo.

So! That last picture, the bumblebee flying? Yes, well, I have found their limit is about a meter or so. Keep scrolling to see three of my four stings and one unlucky bumblebee that clung to me into the house and got squished in a panic, sadly. Content warning if you keep scrolling down: squished bee, reddish stings, puffy knuckle. No blood.

Briar was interested in an ice cube abandoned after Wes got out the more useful bag of frozen peas n carrots for me. Last chance to turn back from sad bee and sting pics!!!!
Sting above knuckle on ring finger.
Left arm sting
Right arm sting. This was the unlucky and persistent bee we squished in house. I feel bad about that.
We kept the dead bee for identification. Tentative identification by several people is American Bumblebee, Bombus pennsylvanicus.
Front view
Another above shot. Pattern of yellow and black seems to be how they are identified.
This morning my two arm and one neck stings not too bad. Last night the arm ones hurt when bounced (ie when I took dog on her bike ride) and the knuckle hurt to flex. This morning the ring finger knuckle is very puffy and definitely hurts more to flex.
Note how the affected knuckle doesn’t wrinkle up like all the others.
Unaffected left ring knuckle for comparison.
We’ve been walking by here all summer with no problems, but I decided to put a chair out for safety for now. Finger pointing at bees.
You can see it’s on the way to the door to the garage. I think it should bee fine but for a few days at least I am going to go around!