Hope everyone had a great New Years celebration last night. Ours was quiet, Meg was in bed by 10:15pm. It reached 65 degrees here today and was a beautiful day.
Anyway the bees were happy today bringing in lots of pollen, they acted very elated as you can see in my slow motion video below. I found them nectaring on camellias, helleborus niger and Helleborus foetidus as well as violas and pansies.
Here is two bees on Helleborus foetidus,
at times there were at least 6 bees on this one plant.
This bee is on Helleborus foetidus, this plant will have 40-50 flowers on it, it is just starting right now. You can see the pollen collected and the bees take a long time inside the flower usually several minutes.
This bee is on a viola often called Johnny Jump up. The bees get a quick snack and move on quickly. Pansies and violas will do OK during the winter here and be pulled up when it gets hot at the beginning of May.
Rainbow Carrots Meg picked for our salad tonight.
Edible mushrooms I found today at the local nature park on our walk. These are very large Oyster Mushrooms, saw little ones as well. Given these were at the nature park I did not bring any home for dinner.
An update on my blue bottle collection somewhere around 215 blue bottles right now. The red bottle featured here in my first red bottle, I found it on the last day of 2011. Below is what 140 blue bottles look like.
We have started something new with recycling also. I have a restaurant and a bar saving bottle caps for us. I made my first pick up yesterday, got about 200 caps. The pink Nehi and the pink Mother Earth Brewing coolest. We saw some art made out of bottle caps, using the printed tops for design nailed onto wood, very cool. I have a few photos I'll share here one day. We looked online at youtube and it seems a lot of artists use new bottle caps and glue designs inside them and make jewerly, this is not what we want to do.
Back to fungus, I saw three of these today on a single tree 12 foot up. This was about the size of two grapefruits. I'll be looking for the ID, I think it is one that become permanent.
Here is Grumpy enjoying a sunny warm deck on the first day of 2012.
Randy, I wish you and Meg a happy and healthy 2012! Now, let me see... Blooming Helleborus , carrots in January, a big pile of bottles, relatives-millionaires... Randy, you made it!
Happy New Year Randy and Meg. I can't wait to see what's in store for the caps and those blue bottles. You have not shown us again the status of the pond with blue bottle walls. BTW, i love your rainbow carrots, and Hapi New Year to the bees too!
Love the bee videos! Your Grumpy looks a lot like my Ginger--short tail and all! I can't believe your Hellebores are that far along. Incredible! How nice to have Pansies throughout the winter. Happy New Year!
I love seeing happy bees. We just lost our second hive. A number of our friends have lost numerous hives this year. Not a good year. However, both our feral colonies are like yours, strong, and bringing in tons of pollen, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can split those hives in late winter. Those carrots look delish! Happy New Year Randy and Meg!
Gene was in bed by 10 too! lol I'm nearly always awake past midnight so I heard the celebratory gunfire that is always a part of New Year's celebrations around here.
I am envious of Grumpy. I could use a sunny day on the deck myself. Love the photos of the fungi, bees and Johnny jump ups. A friend gave me JJ's 10 years ago or so and they are still going strong every spring. She saw them as weeds, but I certainly don't! Rosey
Randy, I wish you and Meg a happy and healthy 2012!
ReplyDeleteNow, let me see... Blooming Helleborus , carrots in January, a big pile of bottles, relatives-millionaires... Randy, you made it!
Great photos! The carrots look yummy. Hope 2012 is a great year for you.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Randy and Meg. I can't wait to see what's in store for the caps and those blue bottles. You have not shown us again the status of the pond with blue bottle walls. BTW, i love your rainbow carrots, and Hapi New Year to the bees too!
ReplyDeleteHope you and Meg (and pets) have a great year ahead!
ReplyDeleteIt's been an warm winter until now -- fun to see honeybees out foraging.
This arctic blast may not last too long - we'll see.
All the best,
Lisa
Love the bee videos! Your Grumpy looks a lot like my Ginger--short tail and all! I can't believe your Hellebores are that far along. Incredible! How nice to have Pansies throughout the winter. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing happy bees. We just lost our second hive. A number of our friends have lost numerous hives this year. Not a good year. However, both our feral colonies are like yours, strong, and bringing in tons of pollen, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can split those hives in late winter. Those carrots look delish! Happy New Year Randy and Meg!
ReplyDeleteGene was in bed by 10 too! lol I'm nearly always awake past midnight so I heard the celebratory gunfire that is always a part of New Year's celebrations around here.
ReplyDeleteThose carrots look great.
Happy New Year!
I am envious of Grumpy. I could use a sunny day on the deck myself.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos of the fungi, bees and Johnny jump ups. A friend gave me JJ's 10 years ago or so and they are still going strong every spring. She saw them as weeds, but I certainly don't!
Rosey
And I forgot to mention that I am impressed with your bottle collection. I have a total of five right now. I need to do more scrounging.
ReplyDeleteLove the rainbow carrots. I think your fungi looks like the one we had a couple years ago in the Learning Garden. It was a Hedgehog fungus.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos of the bees! The carrots look delicious.
ReplyDelete