I've not been in the garden or seen a bee since Tuesday when I took this photo. It's been raining since then. Click on the photo for a good shot of the honeybee's proboscis. Bees cannot survive without water, and believe me, there has been no shortage since late Tuesday night.We have had extreme drought conditions in Western North Carolina for the past couple of years. The rain we've had should make a huge dent in the deficit. I complain when the skies are grey for such long periods of times, but I know the rain is very beneficial. My husband says I "B and M", which translates to Bitch and Moan, but I'm a farmer - it's required of me!
I'm headed to the farm store tomorrow, rain or shine. Sunday is forecast to be nice and I'm going to set out some lettuce, broccoli, cilantro and parsley plants. I've planted some lettuce and cilantro seed, but I like to do seedlings, too. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of my seeds have washed away. I'll also plant my potatoes. The bed is ready except for the addition of some bone meal.
There is always an upside to long periods of spring rain in the mountains. The temperatures will warm to the 60's next week and the yard and garden will start to "green" before my eyes and the honeybees will be out working again!
6 comments:
I followed your instructions to "click" and could hardly believe my eyes. What an amazing picture! The more you write, the more my appreciation grows for these wonderfully designed little gardening partners.
I have a new appreciation for bees and nature photographers. I never know what I'm going to capture with the camera, but anytime I post, "click on" for a better view. Go back and look at some older posts if you haven't already done so.
Awesome closeup photo of the bee. You can even see the veins in the wings.
The beekeepers here have talked about sometimes having problems with neighbours complaining about bees just swarming with delight over their pools -- saltwater pools! It's the new thing apparently, to avoid using chemicals people are putting in saltwater pools. The bees just love the salt and are drawn to these pools.
Your comment about the salt is interesting. I recently read an article about bee's needs for water and it stated that if bees are a nuisance to pools they can sometime be lured away with a salted source nearer to the hive. The link to the article is
http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/info/info/managing/bees-need-water.shtml
I'm fortunate that I live on a stream so there's a great natural source of water nearby, but the bees do love the birdbaths.
This weather is killing me! I was visiting a friend in Seattle for a few days and it's exactly the same here as it is there. Come on sun!!!
Great readding your blog post
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