August 12th

a hollow beauty

her dead mouth tasting nectar

sleeps on the flower

This dead bee (photo below) was still attached the flower she was gathering from. Her mouth fixed her to it, in a fragile thin bond. The breeze rocked her to and fro, but didn’t throw her off.

She may have been attacked of course, but there didn’t seem to be any damage to her, it seems she just died of exhaustion. There on the flower head in our garden.

Bee’s are so selfless. She’s another bumble bee, I’ve written about them more than once, their season is coming to an end. Her and her sisters will all die in the next few weeks. But their new queens, the queens they gave their lives for will emerge from their slumbers in the spring, to found new hives.

July 27th

sacks of pollen gold

weigh down the bumble worker

the precious labours

Poor bumble bees haven’t got long to live now. The seasons nearly up. They are amazing animals, their ability to fly in the first place due to the incredible muscle strength of their wings. And the big pollen baskets they carry on their legs, which they eat in their nests. They seem somehow impossible. It’s all about sharing for them, makes me wonder what this planet would be like if a hive animal became the sentient species. All your base are belong to us!

Love Bees. And touch wood, I’ve never been stung by one.

June 19th

Edgar Allan Poe

skull and pirate treasure trail

gold-bug cipher bite

We had the washing carousel out, which made a kind of tent like secluded wind break, but still allowed the sun to filter through. It was kind of like how I imagined a medina in Marrakesh would be like, with a nice patch to sit on outdoors and drink mint tea / smoke shisha, behind thin curtains, except with our bed linen hanging out to dry instead of un-dyed natural cotton billowing.

It was nice, hadn’t had much time to think of late, the day was warm as well. So I just sat down, then lay down and looked at the sky. Listened to the birds. A blackbird and a song thrush had a competition. One was in the oak, the other in the Eucalyptus tree, but it might have been in the Willow, it was hard to tell.

I felt safe being surrounded by our flowers. One should not underestimate the therapeutic and reviving qualities of a loved garden.

D then noticed something, a small golden beetle near the herbs. It looked amazing, neither of us had seen anything like it. It reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe’s (conveniently his name is 5 syllables) short story, The Gold-Bug, from Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

Except with a bit of research, we confirmed they’d be no buried treasure to dig up. The offending critter was a Rosemary Beetle, yes, they love Rosemary and their larva can destroy it, they are a non native pest. We have tons of Rosemary growing. Neither of us like to kill any animal, no matter how small, so we’re going to try to reason with him!

(all photos by me)

other stuff happening. A bee on the knapweed.

A bee in the foxgloves (an action shot – woooo)

March 11th

 

Queen bee emerges,

Crawls from the sombre litter,

Leaps into sunlight.

 

Saw a bumblebee (again) today. Second one of the year! It was up on the ridge at the top of Pegsdon Hills. Was almost certainly a Queen considering the time of year. Unlike honey bees, the poor bumbles only live a few months, the Queens just one year. They form relatively tiny colonies, compared to the thousands in the honeybee hive (who hibernate over winter). Before the old Queen died in the Autumn, she laid some regal eggs, these bumblebee Queens flew away after being fertilised by a male, finding safe warm havens to survive the winter. In spring, they emerge, looking for a spot to create their colony, to being the process again.

I wish her luck! With her bizarrely impossible aerodynamics!