Small Area, Lots of Life!

I walked down my long gravel driveway to get to the mailbox. Twenty feet or so up from the road, I saw a critter eating leaves; I could hear it biting the leaf! I went to get my camera and took pictures of the small area around that critter including mostly flowers. Hope you like them!

A Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar
Driveway across the front of the cabin, curving down
Driveway down to the road

To Bee or Not to Bee

I have a 2-story log cabin in the woods and wood bees are having a party drilling holes in the logs. This has happened for years now and I have filled so many holes and put up so many traps! The climate changes have altered the yard all around the cabin from grass to mainly clover. Also associated with climate issues is the dearth of honey bees, those precious pollinators. Until recently, I have only seen one or two each time I go out. Still, I do not use masses of insect poison on the wood bees because I don’t want to harm the little honeys.

A couple days ago there must have been a massive spawning of wood bees as small wood bees were everywhere I walked! Not to alarm anyone, but I started stomping all I could find. In one day, I got 111 before I had to go in and cook supper. Today when I went out, I saw HONEY BEES! Many of them! Looks like they were scared away by those big ol’ wood bees. I got 63 more of the wood bees all around the cabin and spotted at least fifty honey bees!

Good thing I did not use bug spray (except for direct spray into the drilled holes). I use bee repellent in the brown stain I put on the cabin every other year, but being here alone makes me very wary of climbing a ladder all the way up to the second story, thus the wood bee problem. If I can take out most of the offspring though, that might make a real difference!

Getting Fruity Around Here!

I adore seeing fruit trees and vines and such leafing out, blossoming and getting the goodies growing! Here are some of the favorites I have; I already have picked a bowlful of the strawberries! I also have grapes, peaches and such, but these were the easiest to photograph.

Here are what they produce: Across the top are apples (I have five different kinds) and blackberries, the biggie below is blueberries and the stacked ones to the right are raspberries and strawberries. Come on cobblers, bread additions, muffins and lots of other ethereal edibles!