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 stingRight 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 viewAnother 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!
Dill seeds are developing.A lightning bug rests on carrot leaves.This pillbug (rolly polley) looks very fresh, perhaps it just molted? It’s on a dayflower.The prairie is very lush and some of the tepary beans are sure climbing tall!Beautiful fungi on woodpile.Dog says things are okay!
I left this zucchini too long and it was 1.76 kg (about 3.9 pounds). Gram the cat weighs about 14 pounds last we weighed him.Paula’s moss rose has a lovely flower!Briar yawns. Photography of plants is borrrriiiiing.Several inches of rain is settling down dirt over geothermal pipes nicely. Once it’s not slippery mud, I’ll go spread it out more and continue leveling and shaping.You can see seedling ‘Will Rogers’ variety red zinnias on the right, and harder to see are ‘burning embers’ Linnaeus marigold seedlings near the peach tree, for quick orange.Briar looks over green and yellow bed. A triangle of Fordham giant chard with lacinato kale in the middle. The two scraggly plants are coreopsis recovering from being potted up for a month. Around it are dwarf marigold seedlings for more quick yellow.‘Country gentleman’ sweet corn is flowering.Supervisor exhausted by his earlier brush with the monster zucchini.Book “Bean by Bean: a cookbook” by Crescent Dragonwagon. Lent by the Bean Queen herself, thanks Heather! Lots of interesting bean trivia. More focused on cooking than bean varieties (ie differences among Lima, green, cowpeas, lentils, etc, not varieties within those).
Not shown in this picture of innocence: Gram waking me up 1.5 hrs before my alarm clock by pouncing on my toes under blankets. Briar has been a good this morning, though.What about THESE toes???She’s ready. The classic stare-off. He had a few good meows during this too.Surprise attack!!! The dog loves to fall over dramatically when he goes for her neck when she is already laying down.
First we must get approval of herbs (moss curled parsley) from the sous chef.The cooking begins.French onion soup with a side of chicken. Onions and parsley from the garden.
Butterfly milkweed.Wild heliotrope.Had leaves like greenthread but a yellow center on flower.Compass plants all facing what we think was east.Bigger view of the compass plant valley.A megachilid bee on butterfly milkweed!A whole field of Echinacea!Rosa sp. I know this one. I’ll look it up. Edit: wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), thanks Mom 🙂Happy!!!!A Dun Skipper on prairie bluets.Asclepias viridiflora (thanks Abby and Mom!)Shade good for fluffy dog.Another view of the Echinacea field.Note the matching orange dog in background.I remember this plant.She tried to get humans to join her but we’re no fun.
Baby zucchini harvest before departure.Saw a tree cricket on the mint.Rouge Vif d’Etampes squash has a baby.Upon arrival to Texas, Junior Supervisor Briar and Senior Director Gracie take a break.Mustard greens and rouge d’hiver lettuce from the garden in a fancy salad by Mom!Mom has outdone herself again with fresh blackberry sorbet. The mint leaves are from my garden.Upon return to Oklahoma, a very fine toad was seen. An excellent weekend visiting with our southern blog colleagues.
The Chef got three jars of dehydrated onion stems/leaves from our harvest of granex bulb onions. The bulbs are still drying in the hall.My hat is irresistible to Gram.He tries to eat the string and tulle until I get fed up and put it up.Fleabane in full bloom!Photography is boring for dog.Dill starting to bloom.Elderberry is thriving.Full view. It’s just one plant!A tiny bee on Gaillardia pulchella.A young (?) lynx spider eats a house fly while sitting on coreopsis.Coneflowers are going strong.I need to look up the name of this skipper, which is sitting on a dayflower leaf.
