Busy Bees

Despite stepping on a hornets nest, being chased all the way home, and stung repeatedly as a child, I am not afraid of bees.  I love the bumble bees who roll luxuriously in the pollen and then because of their greed, must sit and patiently clean some of it off in order to fly off again.  

I love the honey bees from my neighbor's hives who swarm on the orange Hummingbird Mint (Agastache aurantiiaca), the Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), the lavenders, the cosmos, and the Butterfly bushes. 

Hard to catch the bees sitting still.  There is one in the upper left corner sharing the bush with an orange butterfly in the lower right corner.

  
Butterflies and bees swarming are a testament to the lack of pesticides in my neighborhood.  And even though I really HATE the horned tomato worm, I patiently pick them off by hand (and leave them as a tasty treat for the birds, far from the tomato) rather than use poison.  So far the score is definately on the tomato worm's side.  My husband can spot them much better than I am able to do.  Maybe we will get some tomatoes this year... and maybe not.  The chipmunks love them as well.

We do, however have lots of flowers.  I cut some today to bring into the house (braving the bees, wasps, etc. to do so!) so that I could link to Jane's "Flowers in the House" Party.

Loosely arranged in a blue glass vase.  Everything from my garden except the white mums which are hanging around after almost two weeks from Dorothy's Memorial service.

I even love the bee (or is it a wasp?) with the orange wings on the cosmos flower.

  And of course...bees make honey, which we enjoyed with sopapillas when my brother, niece, and great-niece came for a very short visit with my Mom.

Mina and her grand-auntie Rosalind.

Sopapillas with honey..recipe here

 Don't forget to click on Jane's link to enjoy lots more photos of flowers.