Clouds of oak pollen the past 2-3 days here. This morning a long steady rain is helping wash it away. The Purple Rain pansies here yesterday were blooming almost green with pollen. Driving from Durham to Hillsborough(10 miles at most) I counted 6 clouds of pollen along the way. Usually Loblolly Pines are the trees creating pollen clouds here, these areas had little in the way of pines, had to be oaks.
Yesterday at 9am my bees were pollen drunk on their porch not even thinking of flying off to get pollen. Exciting news about the nuk (small bee hive) we started 8 days ago. On Wednesday small groups of bees were outside the nuk, by Friday there was an orientation flight of 40-50 bees, I was so excited!
Meg pulled all the house plants outside yesterday, the house seems so empty now. The plants some got sunburned yesterday, today they are getting soaked.
Oh even more exciting news I am pleased to announce that a photo of my is going to be on a book cover, my second book cover. Here it is a female Diana Fritillary, I took this photo 12 years ago! These butterflies are kind of rare and females are very hard to find. The prime spot this photo was taken the next year VADOT had a bulldozer remove all the Common Milkweed along this rarely used forest road. To my knowledge this site is still a goner.
Below are some photos I took in the rain using an umbrella this morning.
One of the woodland beds we added a rock border to weeks ago, notice the new blue pots in place. Mostly large hellebore plants, hanging over the rocks is that picotee dougle hellebore. You can see a few native May Apple growing next to the rocks as well, they were not planted there.
A close up of our Edgeworthia, beautiful isn't it?
Remember those peas I planted on January 26th, now nearly 2 foot tall, likely be 3 foot in a few days with this cool rain soaking them. The temps have been in the 80s most of last week, too hot for peas, this is why we plant them very early...
15 comments:
Congratualtions on the book cover. That is very cool. And a gorgeous butterfly.
What is the ring of blue bottles?
Kitty,
The ring of blue bottles, search my blog for bottle wall and you will see. Oh, actually the photo was my third book cover photo, I forgot my self published CD book on butterflies.
Congrats all around! Isn't it funny how taking the plants outdoors makes a home feel empty? I get that way too.
Congrats on the book cover! It's a beautiful photo.
Edgeworthia is one of my favorites. It grows so fast too.
I remember being jealous of your peas last year. Mine haven't sprouted outside yet.
How exciting to get a book cover!
A beautiful butterfly! Congratulations on the book cover! That is so sad about the bulldozing of all the milkweed..
It's been so great to be out in the garden! Happy gardening!
What a beautiful butterfly! I can see why your photo was chosen for a book cover. Your shade garden looks soft and lovely!
I absolutely LOVE Edgeworthia leaves in the rain, they look like blue/green velvet. Congrats on the book cover!
Hi Randy, Congratulations on the book cover, lovely photograph.
I like the borders you've installed, too. All of your plants look so healthy, the rain does them good, doesn't it?
It was good to see your bottle wall again, too.
Congratulations Randy! That is a fabulous photo and what a thrill it must have been to see the Diana! The colors are fabulous. I love May apples and your peas! I hope the rain helps and that you can harvest a bumper crop. Sweet! Yum! Your pots look great where you have placed them. I hope we get some rain soon too.
Love your woodland bed, I am trying to create a little woodland area and am happy with it so far.
Congrats on the book cover! And what is that interesting blue bottle spinning thing in the background?
Congratulations!
It is fun to see bees orienting to a colony made from a split. Let's hope they get their queen up and going soon too! Just checked our hives today, which I'll post about on Monday, but we did see day 4-6 larvae in the hive we split out a month ago. Still a little early for capped brood to know if it's worker or drone, but we'll just have to peek again next weekend to be sure. Otherwise the hive looks good. Congrats on the book cover!
Hi, Randy-
Great to read about the book cover!
We've got peas flowering in the (full sun) kitchen garden next to the visitor center at the Garden, but my own peas are still without flowers (they're much more shaded at the moment). I'm tempted just to harvest them for pea shoots, given the warmth!
Lisa
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