Did you notice the bee had some company in that last photo? I didn’t, until I looked closely at the next one. Nasty little sapsucking beasties. And yet—they’re rather lovely, aren’t they, all rosy in the morning light?
Oh! Was it here on your blog that there was a discussion this past autumn about the absence of walnuts? All the speculation was about climate change; nobody mentioned POLLINATORS!
I even recall a newspaper article about it and there was no talk of pollinators in that, either.
I just finished FRUITLESS FALL, thanks to your recommendation, and it’s been permeating my days.
Never mind. Walnuts are self- and wind-pollinating. Should have done my research first rather than leaping out of bed and coming here to post. Sigh . . .
Hi Melissa – I LOVE your bee’s photos! So beautiful shots – aren’t bees most beautiful God’s Creatures?
I think that Itsy-Bitsy companion on the lower flower might be a Crab Spider … MIGHT be
Love & hugs!
“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
I agree – they add a certain je ne sais quoi… It’s like the Discovery Channel in one macro shot. So much going on there.
Posted on May 18th, 2009 at 9:18 amOh! Was it here on your blog that there was a discussion this past autumn about the absence of walnuts? All the speculation was about climate change; nobody mentioned POLLINATORS!
I even recall a newspaper article about it and there was no talk of pollinators in that, either.
I just finished FRUITLESS FALL, thanks to your recommendation, and it’s been permeating my days.
Posted on May 19th, 2009 at 3:16 amNever mind. Walnuts are self- and wind-pollinating. Should have done my research first rather than leaping out of bed and coming here to post. Sigh . . .
Posted on May 19th, 2009 at 3:29 amHi Melissa – I LOVE your bee’s photos! So beautiful shots – aren’t bees most beautiful God’s Creatures?
Posted on May 19th, 2009 at 6:55 amI think that Itsy-Bitsy companion on the lower flower might be a Crab Spider … MIGHT be
Love & hugs!
Coming out of lurking to share this website with you and yours: http://www.life.illinois.edu/pollinatarium/index.html
Enjoy!
Posted on May 19th, 2009 at 2:49 pm