Busy day

[altivo]

Still didn't get it all done. But lots of stuff did get done.

High point: Dinner with charcoal grilled salmon (farm raised) which was nummy.

Low point: Trying to pick berries while being eaten alive by mosquitos. We hadn't put on repellent because we didn't want to have to wash it off before dinner. Ended up having to wash off mashed mosquitos and blood stains instead.

Spun a bunch of that cotton I dyed back on Monday. Photos soon. Made a pie from apples and blueberries. Not yet sampled, but I'm sure it will be good. Helped Gary bake sourdough bread with home ground wheat flour, sour cherries, and chopped walnuts in it. That is excellent stuff. He started with a potato sourdough recipe from kint and modified it. I could eat a whole loaf by myself but I won't. (Will-power, gotta have will-power...)

Many things in the garden are really taking off in spite of late planting. Should have tomatoes soonish. Pole beans are climbing now. Need to thin out lettuces, beets, and chards. The okra grows so fast it seems bigger if you just looked away for a minute. ;p

In a fallow part of the garden we have sweet clover and thistles growing that are taller than I am (over six feet.) Today I noticed that there are some actual honey bees working the clover blossoms. First time I've seen more than one honeybee at the same time since last summer. The Japanese beetles continue to be sucked into the trap. Apparently they respond to it best in the afternoon hours, when the temperature is higher. The plastic bag is really filling up, but there are still lots of them out in the pasture chewing on curly dock and plantain leaves. Like the cockroaches in "Fat Freddy's Cat" I guess, there are always more where those came from.

Comments

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

Uggg, Japanese beetles. I remember having issues with them back when we were in Tennessee. I don't think I have seen or heard about them being a problem here...though we do have the lovely fire ant to deal with. :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Texas is too hot for the Japanese beetle. And what would they eat? Sagebrush? ;p

[aureth.livejournal.com]

We have been coexisting with a bumblebee colony in a tree right outside our backdoor, this summer. In one of the trees our clothesline is tied to, even. So far, we've maintained a truce. It is a little disconcerting to have huge insects buzzing around you as you hang clothes out to dry, though.

Haven't seen many honey bees, even in the alfalfa and clover pastures I occasionally find myself walking through.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bumbles are pretty placid as long as you don't attack them directly. We've seen a lot of them around here this year, and they are good pollinators but just don't have the numbers and efficiency of the honeybee.

I am noticing more honeybees now. I saw quite a few working brown-eyed susans outside the library yesterday. Perhaps they are starting to recover (hooves crossed.) My guess is that the heavy blueberry crop here was pollinated by native bees, the little green ones we usually don't notice. After all, the blueberry is a native in North America, so it must have been pollinated by a native species originally...