Bee Count!

It is a sweet obsession, my daily (hourly) sojurns into the yard to see how many bees are around, and what they are feeding on. It is such a joy and mystery to watch them gather nectar, pollen and, at the leaky spots, valuable water to cool the hive. They are my buddies, and I count them every day.
MENU: Blackberries, Green Beans...Apples and Greens....
Grapes Coming On...and Fall Nectarines. Will they be for the yellow jackets, ants, and song birds, or me? Cover Crop of Buckwheat...Flowering Succulent...

Big Max Pumpkin...Color of Sunset...
The Evening Skies have been Notable...Far Out Sunrises...
Simba, Welcoming Tigger Home. (see previous post) What a gift, we are so happy she is home. She's a pretty good cat. She has done nothing but sleep since arriving back home. I am pretty amazed at her return; I had long ago given her up for gone. Ya just never know....

The weather has been pretty ideal, and thankfully the water continues to flow. The grapes and early apples (Wealthy and Gravenstien) are good eating now. Fall raspberries and the last of the blackberries are also a great focal point. Exactly what sort of dessert are we preparing next? :) We have been eating an impressive amount of green beans and fresh herbs. The basil and mint make such great additions to nearly everything! Tonight, it was in our sushi...sort of a rice/nori/spring roll thingy...I swear, nothing beats the flavor of fresh, and especially freshly picked, herbs! I planted the basil in morning sun, with pretty serious shade in the PM from a wall of sunflowers to the west side. It has been perfect. It is growing slowly and is staying so succulent. It's had wonderful lush growth. I'm loving it~!~...THE END...

Entered the Food Chain or on a Summer Holiday? - Aug 26, A MIRACLE!

Silly Tigger. So sad since Nala left, never appreciated the dogs, other cats, or any humans besides her one person. She has been MIA since early this week. Did she come by your house? Please call.

August 26th, 2008: ADDENDUM: A miracle , after being gone 14 days, this cat, believe it or not, returned this morning !!! !!! We were stunned. She meowed in the middle of the night, outside, like a dream... Only in the morning, she was real! She does not look any worse for wear, and she had an awful lot to meow about when she first came in. What was her story?....summer holiday after all? .....or trapped somewhere?.....injured (rattle snake etc) and now recovered?....We might never know.We are so overjoyed and inspired that she is back. Welcome home Tigger.

Onward Towards Fall

FLOWER SHOW CONTINUED: Cacti above, Echinacea, with Bumble Bee Browsing, below.
Honey Bee in Sunflower Bliss. I was a little insulted at first, when the sunflowers started blooming and the bees appeared to ignore them completely! Within about a week they soon discovered their sweetness. Now I'm happy. Below, the Skin Gets Tight as a Rose "bursts" into bloom...
Zinnia...Below, Intimate Snapdragon...
Sunflowers by the Bunch...I planted so many sunflowers. We are all enjoying them.
Honey Bee Loving the Spearmint Blossoms....The mint has been a HUGE hit with the bees. It is a carefree, though often invasive, perennial herb for the garden. I am appreciating it more. Below, Green Bean Blossom.Swirling Pumpkin Tendrils....Curly! Below, the extremely popular (with the bees at least) Pumpkin Blossom. Hey! Move over!
Glads....sigh.
Golden Shiro Plum and below, the Gravenstien.
The flowers and veggies are kicking butt around here, but the fruit has been a fiasco. Damn birds. What more need I say? Though we did get to enjoy all the golden plums and most of the red ones, they reduced the nectarines, of which there were quite a few, to pits and skins in a matter of one day! Frankly, I spaced. I knew they were getting close, and then WHAM! ...they caught me off guard. I was shocked! Every blessed one was a hollow shell of its former juiciness. Nectarines are best picked just before they are ripe, and are then allowed to ripen off the tree. We got to eat just 3 :( The Red Summer Pears were a similar story, in that the window of ripeness is a narrow one. One day they were fine eaten off right off the tree, and just a couple days later there was a great many that had been molested, were laying on the ground and the cores had begun to soften and brown. These are a red pear, that have a similar texture to an apple. We did get to consume far more of those, but still...annoying. I am watering, feeding, and weeding - why? Oh right, to feed the birds! Physically I have been having a difficult time logging much time at the computer. Hip trips. So it's Granny Speed, full throttle ahead, onward to fall. Can you even believe it??