rivercrow

Kuranes was chastising me again the other day for not writing about my life. Specifically, why I wrote primarily about introspective stuff. He’s right. So, I will try to write about some other stuff.

The weather here has been strange. For weeks it was getting warmer–spring weather–up to the 80s a few days. For the last week, we’ve had frost warnings every night. This is bad. My Stargazer lilies are up about a foot now and I was very worried about these getting frozen. So every night I cover them up with makeshift tents and every day I uncover them.

I realized the other day that the unfolding leaves at the top of the lilies make an interesting pattern. I’ve yet to actually photograph this–slacker me–but I think I will play with them tomorrow. If the pattern is still there.

The front garden needs some help. Two of my lavender shrubs have died, casualties of the ice storm a few years back, and grass has invaded. I have a lot work to do there and I got some seeds to plant: bachelor’s button, dwarf sunflower, moonflower, sweet pea, basil, and some other stuff. I’m looking forward to watching the seedlings come up.

Back in 2000 I planted sunflowers with the intent of harvesting the heads for wild-bird food. I didn’t expect the flowers to be so popular as sleeping roosts for bumblebees. We learned that we could touch the bees when they were still semi-dormant and they would wave their legs in the air, warding us off. Comical. So, it would be nice to have bees sleeping in the garden again; I think I could get some nice photos out of that.

Part of what I like about macro photography is the opportunity to learn about the critters in the yard. For example, we discovered a bunch of ground-dwelling bees a few weeks ago. Neither of us realized how many different species of ground-dwelling bees there are. I’ve spent some time watching and photographing them over the last few weeks. I’ve watched them digging and I’ve watched predatory wasps investigating their burrows.



I enjoy taking pictures of bees. They’re usually more cooperative than butterflies and less aggressive than wasps. I do wonder what this batch of bees is pollinating, though. If it’s not raining tomorrow, I may spend some time crawling on the ground with the bees.

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