Dec. 31, 2016
Thanks for hanging in there with my blog as I have been preoccupied with living life and struggling to put words to it lately. It's been a year rich with experience; some amazing and some baffling. The birds are helping me to take time for joy. Much of our bumper crop of apples was left for the migratory songbirds and they are already here and cleaning them up. So far I am in the right place to do this without attracting bears. I would have to think of something else if they started lumbering through the yard. Wouldn't want them getting into any trouble because of me. I wish you all the best of the season and peace and prosperity in the New Year.
Dec. 29, 2016
October 27, 2016
Here is some of the wildlife I saw in France. It will be a while before this site gets back into the rhythm of the seasons, but next year's pollinators will be happy with all the work I'm doing in the yard. It will, hopefully, create more food for them, which will mean more food (and photos) for us.
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October 3, 2016
Some photos of the responses to war and violence, historical and recent. We can learn to love one another and it is crucial that we learn soon. We have so much work to do to undo the damage already done to ourselves and to our Earth. With courage and compassion, we can do it together.
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Sept. 1, 2016
Hello! I've arrived back from the other side of this beautiful Earth. My parents took amazing care of my garden while I was gone so I will be able to post more lovely pictures of it soon, though it is approaching its sleepy season. Here is a photo of a tree outside the Abbaye du Thoronet in France. It is one of top ten best places for acoustics in the world and my choir and I got to sing a few songs in there. If I didn't believe in the existence of something greater than human consciousness before (whatever one names it), I would now. As it is, I am expanding my personal definition of living things to include carefully crafted structures, such as this one, as well as any art that has come to life through its creator's love, attention, and skill. Some friends and I happened upon Marc Chagall's grave while exploring a beautiful hilltop town in the south of France. People from all around the world had left messages of gratitude on stones and encircled the inscription with them. A couple of days later, I went to the museum in Nice that he helped build to house his work. I got to know him a bit more from his choice of textures, shape, light, and colour. While in Nice, I also enjoyed the imaginative and inspiring Anatole Jakovsky International Museum of Naive Art. On our trip through Provence, our choir was received with much appreciation, joy and enthusiasm wherever we performed. Art feels acknowledged and integrated as a necessary part of life over there. We were blessed to be able to experience that and to bring some of the joy from Canada to France to help them find their own again in the face of so much recent grief.
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June 16, 2016
Well, the technology is letting me put more pictures on here again, so I'll keep going and keep my fingers crossed. Here are some photos of this year's peonies. I'm fascinated by the intricate relationships in nature. Ants and peonies are a fine example of this. Many people believe that ants are necessary to encourage these buds to open. The plant attracts them to the buds with a lovely scent and most likely a sheen of nectar. The ants can't resist and spend many hours scrambling around on the petals, pretty much tickling the plant until it wakes up. I heard that tale long ago and really enjoyed the concept. Was never sure whether or not it was fact but didn't bother to check because it seemed somehow right. |
Now scientists believe that the peony keeps the ants around not so much as an alarm clock, but as protection from predators. This makes sense to me. Very often I have reached out to touch one of the soft petals, only to have an ant run across my hand. Occasionally, I'll even get bitten by one of the wee beasties. Now that I know they are guardians of these lovely flowers, I will be more vigilant when stealing a blossom for the table. (If only they gave tiny little battle cries to warn me of the charge.)
I recently learned that there is a market for products to keep ants off of peonies. Plants and ants have a good thing going on, so people should save their money and learn to look at things differently. Would they chuck a clownfish out of its anemone because it's unsightly? Ants are nearly as pretty as clownfish and more interesting if one takes time to watch them. They add character to flower photos and action to an otherwise sleepy part of the garden. |
May 20, 2016
Well, apparently my photos have filled the free version of this site to capacity. The cost to upgrade is a bit much right now, as I do this for fun and don't want any advertising on here. I'm trying to decide whether or not to keep going and if I do, whether I should just start a new site and share the address here. It's possible I could stay at this address and delete some of the earliest archives. Will have to see if I can transfer them somewhere.
For a while, I might be doing a few word-only posts. I will keep taking photos, though, and share them when I get a chance. There will likely be a long gap between posts this summer, as I will be travelling to France on tour with my choir. I am looking forward to seeing the different pollinators in French gardens during my free time... le buzz-buzz. Oh, yeah, and maybe checking out some Roman ruins if I have time --after bug-watching. Haha... wait! Pollinator tourism! Wouldn't that be good for the world! To make pollinators "economically viable," in the language of governments. Except that they already are. The food industry depends on them, as do we, as does all life on Earth. While I'm incommunicado, I hope you are all enjoying the pollinators in your own yards. Please remember, as much as possible, to avoid spraying pesticides. Even bacillus thuringiensis, which is approved as an organic pesticide, can wreak havoc on our native butterfly populations. We tend to get all industrious and overdo things. It's natural to worry when you find a new bug chowing down on some of your plants. Most times, the plants bounce back. Sometimes I hand-pick off the more voracious beasties. You can always put them in a dish by the bird feeder and let the birds have at them. My gardens are full of slugs and snails. This morning a mallard duck stopped in and spent an hour or so culling the herd. Nature finds a way to balance things. Be patient. She just needs a chance. Thank you so much for reading! |
April 21, 2016
The Bewick's wrens are back. This time they have moved into the chickadee box at the front of the house that I had tried to rig for bumblebees. Earlier this spring, I was worried about all the queen yellow jacket wasps I was seeing in the yard, so I opened the box to make sure they weren't moving in there.
The tufts of kapok and insulation I had put inside were gone and in their place was a lovely little nest with sticks on the bottom. I recognized that construction style from last year so I quickly shut the box and left it alone. There weren't any eggs in it, and it looked much flatter than the last one, so I thought it might be one of the dummy nests that wrens build to throw predators off. It took a few weeks before I spotted them sneaking in. They're very sly when approaching the nest; not ones to brag or draw attention.
This morning was odd. The male seemed very excited and was peeping as he perched in the apple tree before flying to the box at the end of our carport. I heard a bunch of little peeps answering from inside. A while later, I was working in the carport. Thinking the father wren had gone off to hunt, I stepped out from behind the wall, heading toward my seedlings. The wren was perched on a metal greenhouse frame about ten feet away. He hopped around to face me and peeped in my direction. I said, "Have you got babies? Congratulations!" I sent him a big feeling of love and, to my surprise, he burst into song. He's got quite a voice when singing from the treetops so it was even more impressive in the carport. Pure joy.
The tufts of kapok and insulation I had put inside were gone and in their place was a lovely little nest with sticks on the bottom. I recognized that construction style from last year so I quickly shut the box and left it alone. There weren't any eggs in it, and it looked much flatter than the last one, so I thought it might be one of the dummy nests that wrens build to throw predators off. It took a few weeks before I spotted them sneaking in. They're very sly when approaching the nest; not ones to brag or draw attention.
This morning was odd. The male seemed very excited and was peeping as he perched in the apple tree before flying to the box at the end of our carport. I heard a bunch of little peeps answering from inside. A while later, I was working in the carport. Thinking the father wren had gone off to hunt, I stepped out from behind the wall, heading toward my seedlings. The wren was perched on a metal greenhouse frame about ten feet away. He hopped around to face me and peeped in my direction. I said, "Have you got babies? Congratulations!" I sent him a big feeling of love and, to my surprise, he burst into song. He's got quite a voice when singing from the treetops so it was even more impressive in the carport. Pure joy.
April 20, 2016
These are not the best flowers for feeding bees; nevertheless they are one of my favourites. If I were a bumble bee, this is where I would snooze. I have enough tulips planted around that the deer don't get them all but I have to snap pictures of them as soon as they colour up.
The pink tulip above lasted only a few hours. I took this photo in the sunset and the next morning only the stem remained. I guess the bumblebee-me would have to sleep lightly in the petals, keeping alert to the sound of approaching hooves. The blooms that have endured have aged gracefully this spring. Their dancing forms bring to mind the wonderful fatigue of a day spent outside in the fresh air being serenaded by birds and bees. |
March 28, 2016
Normally when my mason bees emerge from their nesting tubes, they look a little bit dusty. If they have a chance to sit in the sun, they clean themselves and then fly off into the big, wide world. Some fly immediately to a quiet spot elsewhere. The dusty little male in the picture above is this year's bee. However, this year, he is the exception to a new normal. Most of the bees are crawling out looking like they have mud caked on their bodies. Up close, they look like this:
There have always been some pollen mites in the nesting tubes, but this year they are rampant. I have heard that the rainy conditions this winter favoured the mites. It didn't help that I wrapped the nest boxes in row cover and stored them in the carport to keep the parasitic wasps away. Had I left them on the side of the house, the higher temperatures in the boxes from exposure to direct sunlight may have killed off many of the mites and given the bee larvae a chance to eat the food stores before the mites did.
Instead, many of the cells that used to have a bee growing in them have become packed with thousands of mites, which other bees are crawling through on their way out of the nesting tube. The mites grab on tight and hitch a ride to flowers and new nests. That is, if they don't overwhelm the bee so much it cannot fly. Chewing through the mud caps on the nests takes a lot of effort and hauling mites around uses up a lot of energy. This year, some bees are dying before they take their first sip of nectar.
Instead, many of the cells that used to have a bee growing in them have become packed with thousands of mites, which other bees are crawling through on their way out of the nesting tube. The mites grab on tight and hitch a ride to flowers and new nests. That is, if they don't overwhelm the bee so much it cannot fly. Chewing through the mud caps on the nests takes a lot of effort and hauling mites around uses up a lot of energy. This year, some bees are dying before they take their first sip of nectar.
If they have enough energy, the mason bees can comb many of the mites away, but the area between their wings is really tough for them to reach. After a cleansing session of bee yoga, they still look like they're wearing saddles.
Pollen mites target mason bees and leafcutter bees. The leafcutters won't be emerging until the weather is warmer, so I'll have to check later if they've got little saddles too. Hopefully all the hot sun beating on the ground last summer killed off the pollen mites in their nests. Then again, that kind of thinking might just be what got me into this trouble.
Mason bees are fun to keep, but with generous nesting space, their numbers take off. In a few short years I have gone from forty nesting tubes to more than four hundred. If I've learned anything, it's that, when faced with overpopulation, Nature has ways of balancing things.
Within each nesting tube, six or seven bees can reach adulthood. I have unwrapped a few tubes this year and am finding that only two to four bees have made it to the cocoon stage. The other cells are bursting with mites. Last year, parasitic wasps had killed off nearly half of the previous year's bees, leaving only empty cocoons or more wasps.
My yard seems to favour a diversity of pollinators. There are many methods to ensure greater survival of my mason bees, but I suspect that whatever I try, there will be an answer in favour of balance. I am putting fewer nesting tubes out this year.
Pollen mites target mason bees and leafcutter bees. The leafcutters won't be emerging until the weather is warmer, so I'll have to check later if they've got little saddles too. Hopefully all the hot sun beating on the ground last summer killed off the pollen mites in their nests. Then again, that kind of thinking might just be what got me into this trouble.
Mason bees are fun to keep, but with generous nesting space, their numbers take off. In a few short years I have gone from forty nesting tubes to more than four hundred. If I've learned anything, it's that, when faced with overpopulation, Nature has ways of balancing things.
Within each nesting tube, six or seven bees can reach adulthood. I have unwrapped a few tubes this year and am finding that only two to four bees have made it to the cocoon stage. The other cells are bursting with mites. Last year, parasitic wasps had killed off nearly half of the previous year's bees, leaving only empty cocoons or more wasps.
My yard seems to favour a diversity of pollinators. There are many methods to ensure greater survival of my mason bees, but I suspect that whatever I try, there will be an answer in favour of balance. I am putting fewer nesting tubes out this year.
Feb. 27, 2016
Heathers, crocuses and bumblebees, oh my! It begins. My camera was far away from me when I saw my first bumblebee of 2016 this week, but she was probably happier not to have paparazzi tracking her as she sipped from a crocus in a planter outside the plumbing store. Emerging queens are very skittish because everything depends on their survival. They are the only bumblebees from their original colony to live through the winter. It's up to them to find a nesting site and furnish it by making some wax pots in which to store food for rainy days as well as some in which to lay their eggs. At least the big scramble to mate was over with by autumn. Now they can focus on the immediate task of survival. Once the first batches of larvae grow up and fly off to work, the queens can stay in the shelter of their nests, safe from traffic and birds, but maybe not marauding bears and plumbers. I would hate to snuggle into fibreglass insulation, but that seems to be a favourite of bumblebees. Many nests are found by tradespeople during maintenance calls or renovations. They have the dubious honour of being the most likely group of humans to have been stung by bumblebees. |
Feb. 6, 2016
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Interesting how difficult it is to maintain a balanced perspective. There must be some sort of awareness necessary to override memory's tendency to zoom in on pain and forget joy. (In some cases, it is the opposite imbalance.)
I know the hummingbird here is small and close-up and that the eagle is large and far away. If I had no prior experience with either bird and no way to impose third-dimensional knowledge on the two-dimensional images, I might think that the hummingbird was a bigger bird than the eagle. From carrying a wrong belief, I would be out of step with the world. That disharmony would reveal itself in my interactions with others. Each conflict would give me the chance to see things as they really are or to stand by my belief and continue my skewed journey. In choosing the latter, other opportunities for truth would arise later. Maybe they would be more obvious: for instance, a hummingbird and eagle landing right in front of me, beside each other in the same tree. As is the case for many people, I have nurtured wrong beliefs about myself. I have been pained by these shortfalls and so committed to improvement that I haven't taken time to acknowledge what is already right in my overall makeup. The danger of facing false beliefs is becoming stuck in tallying up good and bad. With a clear purpose, I can move beyond judgment. Here, in the fulcrum of my being, I rest in the reality of who I am. In this compassionate state of balanced acceptance, the whole world is new. |
New Year 2016
Here we are at another reflecting point: Where have we been? Where are we going? Where are we?
For this kind of reflection to be of assistance, it must take place on all levels. A spiritual, mental, emotional and physical inventory that is free from judgment will awaken our natural curiosity. Like a small child, it will lead us by the hand into each new adventure that the new year offers.
For this kind of reflection to be of assistance, it must take place on all levels. A spiritual, mental, emotional and physical inventory that is free from judgment will awaken our natural curiosity. Like a small child, it will lead us by the hand into each new adventure that the new year offers.