A new bee…every day
Love this one in the Spring. Always get wistful as they fade. Look at her little claws holding her upsidedown so she can get at the pollen. Neat blue pollen, too. Note the tulip, too, in the lower left. Spring is so neat.
Another one on a Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica). Think I got one on the tulips today, but haven’t taken the time to look yet. So you get another squill shot. Started to feel guilty, but decided that if it’s good enough for the bees – what’s for dinner – it’s good enough for me…and you.
Loving that blue pollen. I keep wondering what it might taste like…
In other news, a set of greeting cards is now available. Here’s a link (Greeting Cards) to what you’d get and how to order.
Catching a bee in flight with really legit, hair-on-the-eyeballs focus is way more luck than management. But it happens sometimes. It’s kind of a busy shot with that Squill in the foreground and mess elsewhere. That yellow/green spikey thing is called Jenny’s Stonecrop. But I call her Angelina (Sedum (Petrosedum rupestre subsp. rupestre ‘Angelina’)) and I might have a bit of a plant crush on her.
While it does bloom once a year (I’ll find some bee pics on it eventually), it’s mostly a ground cover. And a wonderful one at that. It’s heartier than…well…come up with your own metaphor (and include living on concrete in a pinch), it grows quickly, and keeps most of the weeds out. And it’s nice-looking as it changes color through the season. But one of the best things about it is that it’s not hard to remove if you need to (or if it’s wandered somewhere it does not belong). Not all ground covers behave that way.
Didn’t I just rant about ads on sites? Apparently today’s post was brought to you by Sedum ‘Angelina’. Ha!
And that bee is almost iconic with that full bucket of blue pollen. Pretty girl.
I shot this today, by the way. Loving spring!
Got lucky today being able to do what I mentioned yesterday – that is, find a bee on a Squill and show the blue pollen. Not the best pic of the flower, but if you look close, you can see that the pollen on the anthers is a neat blue color…and that she’s been harvesting it. Watch through the spring and the summer how the color (and size) of the pollen varies from flower to flower.
The honey we get from our foster hives is interesting, too. In the spring, it’s a very light amber. In the fall it’s dark…almost opaque. And has a different taste (both are fantastic).
A few more of this series coming later. I really enjoy that blue pollen.