Clik here to view.
Wild Bees Going Wild
Wasps, bees, hornets, bumblebees, beetles, ants, butterflies … everyone is out in the wild cherries today. Nobody is in the orchards ten feet away. And not one single domesticated bee in sight. Look at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Bumblebee in the Vetch
Here’s how to make the world bloom next year and the year after that. First, extend the tongue, gently …Second, flap the flappers and stick up the ear thingies (we use only very scientific terms here)…...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Evolution and the Colour Blue
Take a look. The colour blue is the one first seen out of darkness. Look at it … The Rise Vineyard, Bella Vista Our fences can’t hold it, nor can they hold the Western Kingbird that uses it, because to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sex in the Grass
So, you see your beloved …… and you make your move, surrounded by thistle perfume on a pillowy bed suspended in open space and swaying on the wind, ahhh… perfect … … and, sheeshHHH! … … it kinda spoils...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Green Bees in the Rabbit Brush
Walking along above Kalamalka Lake today, I found the first rabbitbrush of the season in full bloom. Oh, and aren’t the bees happy! Covered in pollen, just like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, except this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fun With Pollen
Ah, the pollen of May. You can cover yourself with it and then launch yourself into open space … Wild Bee Leaving Its Salsify Feast (Click to see her golden mask.) You can cruise around looking for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mariposa Lily and Her Gardener
The mariposa lily and sweat bee dance is late this year, by calendar reckoning, but just on time by the measurement of sun and rain.I’m thrilled that they are here!
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pollination Dance
When one insect …. … crawls, buzzed on nectar … …out of a mariposa lily and flies off to the next flower … Zebra Wasp Takes Wing … another insect that was over on the next lily … Sweat Bee Gathering...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
A Bee for Every Flower?
Like all sunflowers, balsam roots bloom in rings, from the outside in, like this. Here’s a bumblebee showing her technique for working this kind of flower. Here’s the brown bee that has been out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Rabbitbrush Getting Brushed
Without rabbitbrush, this grassland would lose an entire season. These two pollinators, species I’ve never seen before, give me joy. They are the spirit of October above Kalamalka Lake.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Icelandic Poppy in Paradise
There are no bees in Iceland, to lie on their backs and tickle them with their feet. Glad to help.
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Wasp Knows
It’s not just about the flowers. Buds hold their secrets, too. Love your local apricot today!
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Pure Joy of Grassland Thistles
Oh, just roll in that pollen. Come on,you know you want to. It’s climbing out again that’s hard. Whew. But, hey, whoa. Bye.
View ArticleClik here to view.
How An Ecosystem Works: The Daisy Model
If you want to find beetles, give them a soft bed, the complementary shape to a beetle, and wait. They will come, because they made you that way.
View ArticleJoy in the Week of Bees and Wind
When the wind is a bee. Filbert catkins, waiting for the wind. When a bee is the wind. Well, a wasp, but what a tiny beauty with her fur stole! […]
View ArticleIt is the Most Beautiful Day
My seven year-old Transparent apple tree and her sister branch of Benvoulin apples are blooming gloriously today. We have all been getting ready for this for a year now, and are very […]
View ArticleBeauty and the Bees
I spent the day yesterday at Tree to Me, an organic orchard in the Similkameen Valley. The apples were in bloom. Before grafting some apple trees and maintaining the grafts I put […]
View Article
