What a thrill to discover a honey bee flitting from flower to flower. I wish there were more, but we only found one. Bees are crucial to pollinating the tomato plants in my honey's garden. And we want a bumper crop of those luscious Big Boys.
Baby Alex is nine months old tomorrow and getting cuter by the day. He is such an easy going baby. His personality is developing, and he is becoming more vocal. His babbling is hilarious and his laughter is contagious.
I spied Liam examining the red bud tree in our front yard. Its purple flowers are now gone, and the leaves are growing. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, "I want to climb a tree." So I lifted him up to a big branch and let him cling for a moment, explaining most of the branches are too small and he would break them if he tried to climb the tree. He agreed to wait a while.
So he investigated the ring of flowers under the tree. When he spied a tiny piece of greenery fall from the tree, he ran like crazy. He thought it was an insect. So, of course...
we had to go in search of live insects. We found ants and rolypolies, which have their exoskeleton on the outside of their bodies like many crustaceans, and that's why they need moisture. We found a smooth caterpillar which might have been a slug and `moved it to new chomping grounds far away.
To Liam's delight, we discovered a tiny sweat bee in a rose. We watched its activity and discussed what he knew about bees: they make delicious honey, and they sting. I stuck his arm with my fingernail and showed him how a sting might feel. We learned that only female sweat bees sting, and most of the time you can shoo them off your skin and they won't bother you at all.
We have carpenter bees on our patio. They like to devour wood. Someone on Facebook said they stuff a small paper bag with plastic bags and hang the small brown bag on their carport. The carpenter bees think it is a paper wasp's nest and skedaddle. Worth a try.
5 comments:
Hi Linda. Little Liam and Alex are so lucky to have you as a Grammie. They will discover a lot of the world with you! I also agree that it was the longest winter ever here, too. Yowsers. I'm so happy to see everything in bloom at long, long last. Thanks for all your visits, Linda. You are a dear blog friend. Susan
Alex is adorable. Such cute eyes. I wish we could see more honey bees. I used to see so many of them years ago.
Gosh, I think Liam is going to be graduating from high school before we know it! He sure is getting big.
We have wood bees. They like the support poles holding up our wraparound porch roof. Hick filled one of their holes with some kind of bee-killer, and plugged it up. Of course, they're wood bees. So I figure they found a way to eat themselves out of their tomb.
That's a great idea about the fake nest! I did not know wasps scare them off.
A beautiful day for some outdoor fun.
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