Not much

I have been busy but don't have much to share with my loyal readers.  Do I have any loyal readers left after my long dry period?  We shall see.  I had a visitor for about 10 days.  One of my internet friends that I had not met before in real life came to visit.  His name is Jurgen and he is a German man who was living in Australia when we first met through the Greg Brown fan club, a yahoo list group.  We have corresponded through the years as he has traveled the world, taking English teaching jobs in far flung reaches.  He finally made it to the USA and rode his bike out to my little neck of the woods.   The Gray Jays found him acceptable as a feeder, as you can see in the above photo.

Jurgen and I traded lots of music over the years and he had fun going through my collection while he was here.  The above photo was taken about 5am the morning I was driving him to the airport where he caught a jet to London, where his next teaching job awaits him.  He gave me his bike.

Inside Out wild flower.
That really is its name, Inside out flower.  It reminds me of an umbrella blown inside out. 

Other than that, not much going on here.  Our weather has remained mostly cool and cloudy.  My roses have finally begun to bloom, maybe I will do a post about them later.  I have been spending a lot of time struggling to get the garden growing.  Daily we go out on a slug hunt and pick up lots of these fellas:

and a few more of these guys:

We just pitch them across the road.  We don't like killing things.  Bad karma, don't you know.  I don't like slugs eating my vegetables but otherwise I find them rather fascinating.  Not many people do.

Sorry for the boring post.  I'll try to have some art to show next time.  I haven't had much opportunity to be working in the studio.  Oh yeah, we have also been scraping and painting part of the outside of the house.  Things like this tend to keep me out of the studio.

Be well.

Cameron's Threads: Another Contest

Cameron's Threads: Another Contest
Cameron is having a contest followed by a give away! check it out.

Going Buggy

Hello, I have some new followers and would like to extend a welcome to them before I say anything else.  I have finally passed the 100 mark thanks to you all!  I can hardly believe it.  When I began blogging I thought maybe 20 or even 30 followers if I was lucky.   I haven't even been posting very often but here I have gained some lovely new followers.  Thank you!  I appreciate your support, all of you.  So I figured I had better post something new before I begin losing people.

I've been very busy out of doors but I have managed to slip a bit of studio time in now and then and created the above piece to honor all the bugs I have been battling.  The garden plants attract mostly slugs and chipmunks but still it struggles along.  There seem to be more bees this year than last, and this post will mainly deal with the capturing of a wild swarm.

Above shows a wild swarm of bees that landed in a tree in my yard.  That is a big ball of bees, waiting for the scouts to return to tell them where to set up a new home.

Here comes Chain Saw man, dressed in his bee suit, working to capture the swarm of bees.  He tells me a swarm of bees might carry as much as a gallon of honey with them as they move out with a new queen to try and find a new home.  Imagine what a gallon of honey weighs.  Then imagine what a swarm of bees carrying a gallon of honey weighs.  Not light!

They ball up high in a tree usually, as they wait for information about prospective new homes/hives.  Chainsaw man climbs up and cuts the branch they are collected on and brings it down.

He holds it over the new bee box home, gives it a firm rap.....

and all the bees dislodge and fall into the bee box.  Just like that.

He slowly works a lid onto the top of the box.

Soon, the bees are settled into their new home.  There has been a lot of wild bee activity this year, swarms coming in and out and one settling into a fallen down willow tree, as well as 3 captured swarms counting two at the neighbors.  Lets hope they have time to produce some surplus honey.

The weather has remained mostly cool, cloudy and damp around here.  It is a constant battle against the slugs and other critters, in our attempts to grow a garden.  But quite worth it.  I hope the rest of you are enjoying some fine summer weather.  Sorry I have been remiss in visiting others blogs, but it is a busy time of year.  Thank you for your time, if you are reading this post.  If you don't have time for leaving a comment, I understand.  Please return when you are able and I hope to visit your blogs again too.

Be well.

The Birds

Parent gray jay, eating cat kibble out of my hand.

Baby gray jay, eating cat kibble out of my hand.

Black Headed Grosbeak and House Finch

Black Headed Gorgeous Grosbeak

House finches (Purple Finches?) male and female

Finches at the feeder

Red Wing Blackbirds

Evening Grosbeaks and Red Wing Blackbirds

Douglas Squirrel, hummingbird, and fish

Pileated Woodpecker.

All captured in my yard.  Captured with the camera lens, that is.

Be well.