I tried vegetable gardening this year. Aside from my tomato plants and most of my herbs, it was less than stellar. All my lettuce bolted. My cucumbers were pathetic. None of my squash fruited. I mean, I have to be a complete doofus not to produce a single zucchini, right? So I ripped it all up and and put in flowering herbs, edible flowers and pollinating plants for the hummers and bees. But I left this pepper plant because for whatever reason it loves me and keeps putting out great peppers, even after harvesting the first round. I don't know why but this plant makes me smile. It's as if it's telling me to "hang in there." Next year, I'll keep a few peppers around, because even if they don't produce, the plant looks pretty on it's own. World's Worst Vegetable Gardener, But Peppers Galore!
I'm so much better at bee gardening than vegetable gardening. Not a Vegetable. Look at this little piggy, both her pollen baskets are packed and she's still working madly in this Gazania. Feed the bees! They will save us from ourselves!
Same Bee Different Gazania. The shadow of her wing on the flower is killing me.
A honeybee swam wearily in our fountain pond yesterday. I grabbed the skimmer and pulled her out just in time. Clinging motionlessly to the skimmer, she looked exhausted, as if she'd been swimming for hours. I tried to release her from the skimmer but she clung to it for dear life, moving so lethargically. I retrieved a saucer of sugar water from my supply of humming bird food and set her on it. I thought she could use an energy boost but it was the last thing she needed. She stopped moving completely and literally gave up trying to live. (I know how you feel little girl. Even when people try to help it makes things worse.) I gently picked her up. She clung to my gloved hand like it was her only life preserver for her last chance at life. I set her on the stone step and added a little bit of sugar water nearby just in case she was hungry. Food was the furthest thing from her mind. I watched her dry off using her tongue and legs and within a few minutes her wet fuzz on her back was soft and dry again. I watched as long as I could but I had to go to my Friday night hot date at the sauna to kill some #LymeDisease spirochetes. When I came back, the sugar water was there but she was gone. I like to think she made it home. Saving the World, One Bee at a Time!
I've been observing Lymies use bee venom therapy to treat Lyme disease and there have been many people feel it is helping. There are days I feel as tired as that honey bee swimming in an ocean with no hope of getting out alive. I’m at the point of trying BVT myself. I stick myself with huge needles several times per week so the last thing I'm afraid of is a honey bee sting, or 10. Could Honeybees bee my life preserver?