Tag Archives: bees

Squeezing One More Drop of Summer

Hiding in the sagebrush.

baby horses in sagebrush

Sunning in the catnip

calico cat in catnip

 

Sharing the bounty

bees in bee balm

Just sunning!

pekin duck

Playing with friends

baby horses playing

If A Tree Falls

“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”

Robert Browning

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Yes it is fall.  It doesn’t hit you, it is very sneaky. The bumblers are hanging tightly to the last of the bee balm. So cold they are some times motionless. I have to touch them and breathe on them to get them going. Smoke is coming from the neighbors stacks; the sweet smell of burning fir or birch. Mist hovers over the lake in the morning and a sneaky frost covered the car windows this week. Not a killing frost just a light sparkling announcement card that winter is coming. That’s the problem with fall. It is a downward spiral of decay that it sugarcoats itself in brilliant colours, is respite from blazing hot summer days, and offers a reward of harvest before throwing us knee-deep into winter.

I have written before on how much I love trees and the relationship I have with them. I always find it sad when we lose or have fall more on our property. We lose them to disease and a combination of disease and weather.

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This summer we felled three trees. One from a lightning strike, and two from disease. When a tree falls  it makes a horrendous thump. Here, nothing goes to waste. Branches cut and mulched, the tree bucked for  fire wood.

Fall is all about preparation. Hay, straw and feed in the barn. Frost blankets to get the most from our vegetable garden. Cutting back of the perennial garden, thinking about how we can change it or make it better next year. Fall has an element of hope in it.

With my twice weekly walkabout in search of errant thistle I was surprised by these lovely white flowers and the beautiful coloured lichens and moss.

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Blowing Smoke

 

“The fire, with well-dried logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide.”
―Walter Scott

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It’s cold! The smell of wood burning stoves and fireplaces is permeating the air. There is daily delivery of loads of logs up and down the mountain streets. Log splitters, chain saws and axes are humming and whirring. So far my log pile looks like this

 

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I was hoping for this.

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It’s not as cold as other parts of the country. No snow warnings yet and we haven’t had a frost. Hope this week of promised good weather will ripen my tomatoes.

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I am picking peppers every day and drying them.

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The bees are still in the bee balm and sunflowers, but these guys were hardly moving this morning. You can pick them up in your hand they are so cold.

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Who knew that you only needed to blow a little smoke on them to warm them up and get them moving.

Fall is on its way. Enjoy change!

 

Bees, Butterflies & Bats

Dragonfly in delphinium

The garden is humming with all sorts of insects and creatures. I have planted to attract butterflies and bees and its working. All day you can see and hear them feeding and gathering.  They love the Delphinium, and I love to watch them go in and back out until they are loaded with pollen.

Bee in Delphinium

IMG_3426The pond attracts creatures as well especially since it has been so hot. We had 30 days of sunshine in July, and the temperature has reached 30 degrees C. most days.

It cools down considerably in the evening and our friends the bats come out in droves to feed on mosquitoes and other small bugs. We built houses for them last year, and we have quite a clan now.

Bat House

Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning to find one of our friends came for a sleepover. He was hanging from our bedroom door. I didn’t want to wake him after such a hard night’s work.

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Gallery

The Posers ~ Moments That Make Me Smile

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Just hanging out for my viewing pleasure. Moments that make me smile.