Got That Pollen, Heading Home
Got that pollen and taking it home.
Someone’s headed off to the hive with stash of pollen! How many bees do you see here? And in all the other photos? One of them has five bees on these crocuses! These crocuses were humming with bees as was another clump of them, and as long as the sun was shining the bees were very, very busy.
I photographed this back on April 1 when I photographed the “one white crocus” and forgot to share it then. It’s nice to have spring-blooming flowers you can enjoy, but it’s far better for the bees to be able to find an good meal in early spring. Crocuses, which sometimes bloom even earlier, even during a late spring thaw when bees often awaken in the warmth, are rich in pollen and are easily found by bees. Never underestimate the value of any blooming flower to help keep bees alive—you can help with very little effort in your own back yard.
See other of my posts on helping bees in your own back yard and in encouraging wildflowers in your area.
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Blue and Yellow
Blue and Yellow
This time of the year is always about the first bursts of color, especially blooming things. I always have a stem or two or more of forsythia in my kitchen, and in those brief moments of sunshine the yellow is warm and brilliant before the classic Blue Willow dishes.
Sweet Memories
Sweet Memories
The forget-me-nots blooming in a basket in the front of my house catch the last of the evening sun. I find something incredibly sweet about the way they look in the basket on this chair.
Decorations.
I planted native forget-me-not seeds the year I moved into this house and they’ve continued to seed themselves and bloom all over my hard for the next 21 years. There are so many, and they come up in somewhat inconvenient places, like between bricks on walkways, so I pull them and plant them in all sorts of containers. As long as they remain damp, the show no signs of the trauma of being moved.
I also pulled a few chairs out of someone’s trash and use them for decoration in the yard. I like the use of chairs and other unusual props and planters in landscaping, but was always concerned mine would l0ok like I had simply placed a chair in the front yard and forgotten it.
Here is one of the chairs with the baskets of forget-me-nots and the red train lantern that I pull around to the front of the chair and light when company is coming in the evening. The creeping myrtle, lunaria, cranesbill geranium and daylily fronts look so lush with this first flush of spring.
Blue and Yellow
Blue and Yellow
This time of the year is always about the first bursts of color, especially blooming things. I always have a stem or two or more of forsythia in my kitchen, and in those brief moments of sunshine the yellow is warm and brilliant before the classic Blue Willow dishes.
Crocuses: 2011
Crocus
These are actually in my neighbor’s yard but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying these huge, rich violet goblets of spring. And my neighbors also don’t mind when I lie all over their sidewalk to get eye-level shots of their crocuses.
I can imagine the impact on the faith of early peoples that the warmth would return when they saw the earliest blooming flowers. But you don’t have to be a primitive person to appreciate the beauty of the two most iconic spring flowers, crocus and daffodil, known nearly the world over, their violet and yellow colors become symbolic of rebirth in nearly every culture. Each is native to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but they’ve been carried to every new culture by people who loved them.
Crocuses
Crocus
These are actually in my neighbor’s yard but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying these huge, rich violet goblets of spring. And my neighbors also don’t mind when I lie all over their sidewalk to get eye-level shots of their crocuses.
I can imagine the impact on the faith of early peoples that the warmth would return when they saw the earliest blooming flowers. But you don’t have to be a primitive person to appreciate the beauty of the two most iconic spring flowers, crocus and daffodil, known nearly the world over, their violet and yellow colors become symbolic of rebirth in nearly every culture. Each is native to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but they’ve been carried to every new culture by people who loved them.
The Utter Delicacy
squill
The leaves are matted and lots of twigs fell, but the tiny, delicate Siberian Squill still manages to push its way up to the light and bloom.
These can grow up to six inches tall, but mine have never grown taller than two inches. That blue is so vibrant and so welcome this early in the year that I will see it with even a quick glance out the window or across the yard.
I’d been trying to post something aside from spring flowers during this week, but nothing else is as interesting right now.
Today 