Beeing is to Bee Lovers

Birding is to Birders

With the well documented decline in bee numbers now reaching the total elimination stage I thought I would broaden my daily bee count to include non-bee pollinators. Sadly I’m afraid to report a similar catastrophic collapse in numbers too.

It would appear to be up to blighters such as this beautifully beesque fly to fill the void. Not that there are too many of them. I have however received repeated assurance that they are indeed intent on doing their very very best before moving onto more temping fare of the pooey kind.

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Cat Walk, Marble Sculpture by Martin Cooney

All-in-all, a wetter summer than this I cannot recall, here or anywhere else for that matter. Every other day sees a torrential storm it seems, and while it can at times grow a tad wearisome for we humans, the plants are simply gobbling up every last drop.

Lush it is indeed. What the old time potato farmers would say about it I can only imagine, but a hundred plus years ago that’s exactly what they were doing on this very spot – growing spuds and yacking about the weather.

Potato Patch & Ice Palace Arbor

Strange to think that The Ice Palace sprouted upon this very spot; formed the arbor indeed. Will we ever see another such winter? One wonders.

Green Man appears quite unfazed by it all however. But then again he always is.

He’s really been working hard on his Split Spit Trick. I’ll ask him to go through his routine when you take your Studio & Sculpture Garden Tour.

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Hummingbird Feather

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Floating Leaf

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Bird Mountain Fountain Flowers

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It really is easy Being Green! Well, it’s not that difficult.

So far results, if lacking profusion, have proven tasty in the extreme.

From such humble seeds do mighty Green Pallets grow!

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Kissy Viola

But however I struggle to come to terms with the brave new, practically beeless, world I still find myself heading out into the garden determined to find one, or two, or dagnabit, perhaps even, whoopee, three!

So that’s where I’m headed right now – why not come along and join me.

Bee Spotting for the 21st Century.

Wide-Eyed Poppies

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Poppy Dome

Generally these are the sorts of places where you’d find bees, hundreds if not thousands of them. But not this year.

Pink ‘n White Teacup Poppy

To find real live bees on this oddest of odd summers we need to dig a little deeper… deep into the undergrowth and into the dense, demented world of daisies.