#tiny bees

Seen while walking The Wasteland -

Raider camp:

Meanwhile, back at the homestead -

Volunteer pumpkin:

Friday harvest:

Impulse buy at the grocery store:

Another year, another opossum. We relocated it far enough away that it isn't likely to find its way back to our garden:

I have never seen a fly with this coloration before. It looks like a some variety of soldier fly:

The Red Menace lurking in wait:

We gave up trying to grow hostas and other shade plants under our weeping cherry. The plants were always struggling so we added cypress mulch and three fragrant flowering shrubs that are supposed to be able to stand the abuse from the cherry:

We made chicken broth with bay leaves & walking onions from our garden:

A Ruby-throated hummingbird visiting our firecracker plant:

Just grilling in the rain:

..or a very good impersonator.

I took pictures but as its length is only about 2/3 of a dime, there won’t be a lot of detail.

Breakfast of champions - Spaghetti Bolognese & homegrown blueberries:

Someone mowed down The Oasis in The Wasteland:

This is where the blueberry bush was. It looks like it was cut to the ground & sprayed with Roundup. I just ate blueberries off of it a weekend or so ago:

These tiny banana plants are all that remain:

This onion isn't ready to be harvested:

This one is. The difference is this one has that crimp in the stem:

Seen while walking the dogs:

I need to start eating a cucumber with every meal:

Another night, another dog walk:

Thursday’s blueberries: 

Thursday’s tomato: 

The blossom end rot on it isn’t too bad: 

Two volunteer tomatoes identified. 

Sweet Million: 

Juliet: 

Tiny bees & cilantro blossoms: 

Bold ass blue dinosaur: 

My queen at Plot 420: 

Friday’s blueberries. 

What is Not-Our-Cat doing?: 

Drinking from the slow drip of our sprinkler: 

Leafhopper & weevil. I wanted to get a clear shot of the weevil but it was cagey & flew off: 

Buffalo leafhopper: 

Friday’s tomato: 

Some blossom end rot...: 

But I’m not too concerned: 

No rain & temps in the mid-nineties all week so this has to happen or things die: 

I caught her flicking her tongue out to catch water drops from our sprinkler: 

Inch worms & echinacea: 

I’ve seen this kind of insect before but I don’t know what it is. It is physically similar to a firefly but not exactly & not bioluminescent: 

Gray Hairstreak: 

It kind of has a face like a Who from Doctor Seuss: 

Tiny bees love spirea: 

This little guy was a surprise: 

Just looking up on the back patio: 

Earthworm on a compost bin lid... one of Tennessee Williams’ lesser known plays: 

We went out to Plot 420 today: 

We planted these Black Beauty eggplants: 

Photo of my queen watering with the added bonus of a topless man tilling his plot in the background. I don’t know if it is just a Southern thing but men around here who have reached a certain age lose all shame: 

We also added that cow panel trellis behind her today. This is the easiest way to make a good sized trellis. It is literally just a cow panel, two T-posts & six zip ties. I wished I’d known about them back when we were looking for building ideas for the trellises in the backyard garden but that was over a decade ago. Don’t get me wrong, what we have in the backyard garden using bolted together U-posts is sturdy & gets the job done. They’re just a bit more involved than the simplicity of a cow panel trellis. That cool cathedral arch shape is the happy aesthetic accident of having to fold a sixteen foot panel so it fits in my truck’s bed. It still hung out a bit even with the tailgate down: 

Pericallis & a couple of young zinnias. The pericallis was looking pretty bad a month ago but it has fought its way back to health: 

Plot 420 as of today. We also staked out where we plan to plant some of the corn but I didn’t take a shot of that because metal spikes & old twine isn’t that exciting. Side note: Garden twine is only good for about a season or a season & a half. After that, they are compost material: 

On the road from Plot 420, these shasta daisies that were growing wild near Green Meanie lake caught my queen’s eye so I dug them up & we brought them home. There was a guy there practicing his fly fishing. He told my wife I was a “keeper” because I could have run into a snake getting those daisies. That made me chuckle to myself. I was wearing snake boots because I know the area has cottonmouths & copperheads while he was in shorts & sneakers standing in waist high grass full of chiggers & ticks: 

Cabbage White butterfly cocoon: 

Some of our hairy vetch is going to seed: 

Coffee & today’s strawberry pick: 

Spittlebug spittle on our lemon balm. The insect that made it is in the spittle: 

Cricket nymph before it gets its black suit: 

These tomato plants are already fruiting but haven’t put on much height so I’m starting to think they were mislabeled as indeterminates. We’ll just have to wait & see: 

Assassin bug assassinating: 

These volunteer tomato plants growing with our peas have put on some amazing growth: 

Garden couture: 

My queen made a new sign for Plot 420 out of an old license plate: 

Light conditions were poor so this photo is a little grainy but still I was tickled to see that buck mixed in with the does: