Monday, June 3, 2013

A brilliantly beautiful sunshiny day!  Birds are chirping away (I replenished the feeders yesterday!)  And I am facing a full day of playing away in the garden.  Massive amounts of potting up with my many seedlings!  This year I’ve putsquash plants in containers .. as I’ve used most of my veggie garden for garlic!!

And there is one section left in the sunny area for veggies.  There I’ve planted some squash, shallots and there is still room for squash there.

This year I’d purchased Mason Bees with nesting trays … and I’d placed their little home on the trunk of an old apple tree.  How exciting it has been to check throughout the spring to see the cocoons open up and know that nature is taking its course and the bees are out in the world.   Although I wondered where they were .. I’d seen a variety of bees buzzing away in the yard but hadn’t noticed any of the little black bees.  So yesterday I ventured to their home and saw that the two lower sections were sealed shut!

This led me to search for more information on these industrious creatures and I found this very informative site:  http://www.crownbees.com/life-cycle-of-the-mason-bee/   and sure enough, as the site notes, the bottom 2 left openings are filled in.   This site lists absolutely everything I need to know about raising my little winged family .. how exciting!

Lovely blue skies again … how cheerful and uplifting to have this overhead!   My umbrella has the same scenery on the inside .. more incentive to go for long walks in the rain with a view like this!

One of the many other busy bees in the yard …. lots of pollinators for all growing plants and trees throughout the yard.

 Found this broken egg shell when D and I were out walking at Sooke last week.  We were in an area that normally was inaccessible unless we were ducks, however, the tides were way out.   She has a good knack for finding things that are  just not really evident .. perhaps this is a Heron’s egg?  It is very large, bigger than any I’ve ever seen … so I took it home for a souvenir.  I’ve placed it beside some squash shoots for a comparison.

Look .. I have Garry Oak growing in my garlic forest! Actually there are a number of them and I’ve potted up quite a few.  When I harvest the garlic, I’ll pot up the oaks growing in the garlic .. don’t want to disturb them unnecessarily.

Well .. time to go for a walk in the sun and then, oh joy, to work in my garden!