I brushed the dog. Usually I let it fly around but sometimes it accumulates on the herb garden and that is unappetizing. I haven’t put suet out lately so I stuffed the easily catchable dog hair clumps into the suet feeder. Hopefully more chickadees and friends find this helpful!
Gram guards the rooting juniperleaf.There’s a new pollinator garden on campus!!Very pleased at least one of the partridge pea seeds I sprinkled last year made it up.Paper wasps made a nest on the debris of the invasive clematis.A small lynx spider eats a flyJust noticed that the long true bugs have little flat pom poms on their antennae.A second individual. I think you have to see them from the right angle to get a good view of the antennae spots.DogA helpful cat saw this wasp (maybe a spider wasp?) In the aloe and knocked the pot over.I took it outside and shooed the friend off. No dinner in the house for it. Only cat.I spotted a plume moth hiding on rain barrel stand.Potatoes in straw bale getting big. Hope roots are too.
Monarda fistulosa American germander Sumac berries Probably blueheartsWhite prairie cloverGreenthread flower with a geometrid moth caterpillar Sensitive briarAnnual coreopsis Big red eared slider lady digging a hole for her eggs above the pond.
The Black Vulture egg has hatched!! We were not sure what happened to the second egg.One of the parents watched Mom take a picture through the well house door.We checked on the chickadees and a parent is still sticking close. Very close.Garden transplants and path rescues are actually doing pretty good in the shade and relative cool of the garage.You can see several Mexican plums in here. That tree had a lot of seedlings!Even more plums! And some other stuff.Mom and Dad set up the irrigation for the tomatoes, greens, and herbs.A tiny seedling. Also maybe oregano?? I am not sure. We’ll find out later.The irrigation timer also drips some water for the birds!The lyre leaf sage is really getting going!This post sponsored by Dogs.
Lyre leaf sage blooming. Hopefully mine will be blooming soon in Oklahoma.A Swiss Chard is coming up.Mystery seedling… Too early for oregano??Dogs!!Clouds like mountains.Native tiny bee on Callirhoe involucrata (winecup).Chickadee wasn’t on her nest yesterday, but she was today.More fun!!A solider beetle yesterday. Mom has the ID.Two of these moths in one day (yesterday).If you look just above the moth, you can see a tiny planthopper.
Mom told me that the Native Plant Society was having their spring sale on Saturday… So of course we had to go. I got lots of understory trees and shade ground covers, plus a few other things. More on this once I get home and plant them next weekend.On Saturday evening, we went ahead and put Mom’s tomatoes in the ground. I think our yogurt containers may be part of why the seedlings have been struggling. The knife “slices” in the bottom don’t leak well enough I think; each one was still very wet in the soil at the bottom. In the future I think we’d better drill holes.Doggies always alert. (From today, Sunday.)This chickadee in a nest box refuses to move. The eggs, visible in a previous check, are on Mom’s blog.
I took this picture from inside the house, like a clever mammal. I counted at least 27. I wonder if it’s too hot inside, too hot to forage, or if they are preparing to move? I hope they stay longer. They were confirmed as Bombus pennsylvanicus (American Bumblebee) by a local bee expert.
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!
