bees | Kinds of Honey

April begins

April 6, 2013 § Leave a comment

Today was spring for real, the kind of day where you start out in layers and end up in shorts and a t-shirt by afternoon. Mine began with feeding animals and ended with new books from the library, and a cup of hot milk and coffee, and plans to write (well, after this).

Gosh, I love planting flowers! All around the house and yard on this afternoon off. Cosmos and flax and alyssum and forget-me-nots and a few others. Isn’t it nice that seed costs so little yet turns into such a bounteous sort of thing? And I love that the woods are white with spring ephemerals. I think I have followed trails through spring beauty, and/or hepatica, and/or wood anemone. (I will look closer next time.)

And I love that we are putting pollinator-friendly shrubs and perennials in our farm garden and that it will bring lots of life and beauty to that place. Yesterday I got to visit a nursery called The Unique Plant and the inviting, lush landscape and blooming shrubs there nearly had me giddy.

My camera-less-ness is really just sad when there is so much to capture!

Oh, well. For now, here’s a shot from last weekend, when we went to the beach for my sister’s birthday. Sand and sun! And a salty dog.

Buckwheat in Bloom

August 31, 2012 § 4 Comments

I am pleased to have you know that I sowed this buckwheat.

Now it is doing its job: keeping the weeds down and providing nectar for the bees. I plan to sow a wildflower/prairie grass mix into this plot in the fall, to germinate the following spring. The buckwheat helps by suppressing the persistent weed species this year, so that the wildflowers will have a better chance when it becomes their turn (learn more about how this works here).

Isn’t that clever? And isn’t it nice that buckwheat, in addition to being useful, is so pretty?

Beekeeper

June 7, 2012 § 3 Comments

I do not usually love pictures of myself. But this one that my sister snapped a few weekends ago may be a new favorite. It is evidence of an idea that has become a reality. How lucky is that?