This one seemed appropriate for the day. It was shot by thebeegal. She takes marvelous photographs. This was shot in our gardens…well, her gardens. She’s the one with the talent and the one who does all the work. I wrangle the watering systems, am the enabler, and sweat when dumb labor is needed.
In fact, unless I say otherwise, assume that the bee shot you see came from our gardens. They’re pretty neat. Always something going on. There’s not a particular garden style that might describe them, so I coined the term, MMAyhem. Lots going on. Or, more genteel-ly, fireworks in slow motion.
But the bee. Honeybees have a sadly short lifespan/lifecycle. At least for the workers. In the summer, it’s only about six weeks (contrast that with up to seven years for the queen). And you can tell that this one is nearing the end. A couple of the indications are her chewed-up wings and her back there behind her neck having lost a good bit of hair. Makes me sad to see, but also gratified that she’s still pushing along, doing what she does. And still pretty.