wonderful & detailed with etiology ! Very ‘personal’ as well. we’re currently midtown Toronto & close observers of truly diverse ‘urban nature’ ! Along with Anne’s wonderful & wildish backyard, we are constantly urban pedestrians & walkers.. This was a ‘poor bee year’ in our view.. but oddly the best Monarch caterpillar year ever.. though our is milkweed still recovering, the neighbourhoods flourished with milkweed. Few large bumblebees or honeybees though, very light on starving wasps, some smaller hornets & we know some are up under the eaves as there’s sentinels up there. I thought it was a very soft Cicada summer.. I notice this as a film maker explicitly as one cannot record dialogue for film or video with cicadas in song up there. We can exchange notes re bee stings ! I’m far beyond expert level at several things re Media as well as being stung. I earned such talents the hard way.. EEEOWW ! if ‘the medium is the message’ so too is the busy bee.. & especially the Stinging Bee ! I love the little beasties.. & they love to land on me to explore.. or ‘read me’ - must send you the tale from our farm when I was 13 or so.. late August or very early September - we had 50 - 70 hives annually via a commercial beekeeper - will send later & a recent shot or two of our friends the bees hard at it or taking a break sitting on me ! Great fun ! 🦎🏴☠️🐝
It was dangerously hot in Italy this summer, so our bees did not produce a drop of extra honey. I got them a watering station to help, and then added beach umbrellas to help them during the hottest hours. We lost one hive to wax moth, which was absolutely disgusting. I want to have a water garden next summer so they have a refuge. Right now the loquats are blooming so they do have a food source. Those are always the last trees to bloom until the mimosa shows up in late February.
wonderful & detailed with etiology ! Very ‘personal’ as well. we’re currently midtown Toronto & close observers of truly diverse ‘urban nature’ ! Along with Anne’s wonderful & wildish backyard, we are constantly urban pedestrians & walkers.. This was a ‘poor bee year’ in our view.. but oddly the best Monarch caterpillar year ever.. though our is milkweed still recovering, the neighbourhoods flourished with milkweed. Few large bumblebees or honeybees though, very light on starving wasps, some smaller hornets & we know some are up under the eaves as there’s sentinels up there. I thought it was a very soft Cicada summer.. I notice this as a film maker explicitly as one cannot record dialogue for film or video with cicadas in song up there. We can exchange notes re bee stings ! I’m far beyond expert level at several things re Media as well as being stung. I earned such talents the hard way.. EEEOWW ! if ‘the medium is the message’ so too is the busy bee.. & especially the Stinging Bee ! I love the little beasties.. & they love to land on me to explore.. or ‘read me’ - must send you the tale from our farm when I was 13 or so.. late August or very early September - we had 50 - 70 hives annually via a commercial beekeeper - will send later & a recent shot or two of our friends the bees hard at it or taking a break sitting on me ! Great fun ! 🦎🏴☠️🐝
It was dangerously hot in Italy this summer, so our bees did not produce a drop of extra honey. I got them a watering station to help, and then added beach umbrellas to help them during the hottest hours. We lost one hive to wax moth, which was absolutely disgusting. I want to have a water garden next summer so they have a refuge. Right now the loquats are blooming so they do have a food source. Those are always the last trees to bloom until the mimosa shows up in late February.