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| pollen covered bee inside the crocuses |
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| reversed (negative) shot of the light green decoration in my home |
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| another home decoration |
Normally, bumble bees are very nice. They go about their business without bothering anyone, and they don't mind having their picture taken. This runcible fellow stuck his tongue out at me. (You may have to enlarge the pic to see it.) You know me though; I would never stoop to that level. :-P
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I have had the most difficult time with comments lately. I don't know whether it is the server or my desktop. It does not seem to want to update the comment section in a timely manner, and there is a significant lag with email notification. Maybe if I open up the CPU and oil the hamster wheel...
We did a lot more entertaining last year than this one. For a while, it seemed that I was grilling quite a bit, and I was hoping that this year, I could diversify a little bit from the grill, instead of the same old burgers and chicken.
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The charcoal grill (last year's Father's Day present) has been such a treat, that it's been a while since I've even opened up the gas grill. I went in there yesterday, and HEY, we've got company! I grilled anyway, and I was sure that I was going to get stung, but they left me alone. Too bad I couldn't return the favor, but with some folks having allergies, I don't want to have these things swarming on my deck.
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There is a chill on its way over the weekend, but before it gets here, we are being treated to a few phenomenal days. The sun is shining, people (including myself) are driving with the windows open. There is an excitement in the air about everything new.
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Exuberantly, life bursts forth from a tree in my backyard. A pollen-covered bee gets drunk in a crocus on St. Patrick's day. And a goose with no head (apparently) still manages to walk around with a huge tummy holding a bunch of eggs... probably golden. Right now, I just want to hop on my bicycle and feel the breeze on my face. Life is good!
[click on any picture to enlarge]
You meet interesting folks in the blogosphere. One recent find was Joan from South Africa. She called herself "Bug Lady." She took lots of remarkable photos, and I loved to visit her blog. The macro shots of bugs were astounding, and this lady had a great sense of humor.
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She has stopped blogging now, and I miss her. That reminded me of how I have learned to numb myself from the pain of losing people. Yesterday, a dear family moved out of the country. One person moves away or changes jobs. Another passes away. In Joan's case, she closed her blog..
We need to make sure that we make the most of it when people are here, because you never know when they may be taken away by any set of circumstances. Who knows, but that it may even be us, who are shuttled off to who-knows-where..
About the bee... Those two pics are of a yellow-jacket. One of my sons found a dead bee and brought it to me. (You can see the clear tape that I used to hold it in place.) I was thrilled to have this opportunity, because I had been so eager to photograph ocelli. Those are a bug's tiny simple eyes, located in the middle of the forehead. Most of the time, we only see their large, compound eyes, but some bugs have more than two... and it's not just spiders..
Anyway, it means a lot to me that we can "visit" by blogging. Hasta la vista, Bug Lady. (sigh) I think I'm gonna need a mug of hot cocoa.
They call this strange little character a bee fly. It is approximately the size of a grain of rice. It was very interested in my bluegreen camera bag. Perhaps it was the color of the canvas tote that worked as a beacon to this cerulean striped fly. Yes, it's actually a fly; it only looks like a bee. The mimicry was designed so that we would think it's a bee and not take its lunch money.
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Hey, do you perchance use Picasa for your photos? The August issue of Popular Photography suggests a shortcut on page 108. To flip an image horizontally, press Ctrl + Shift + H. That nifty little trick should come in handy when attempting to decipher Russian signage..
Anyhow, that made me wonder what other hidden secrets I might want to learn, so I googled "picasa shortcuts." Here are a couple more that I expect to find useful:
Ctrl + Shift + V flips it vertically
Hovering over a photo, Ctrl + Alt is a full-screen preview.
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Enjoy!
[click to enlarge]
Here, I found particular enjoyment with the shadows inside the flower's cup. This exuberant flower seems to be oblivious to its fate. Notice the withered petals on the far left.
Speaking of impending doom, this was one solitary bright spot in an area that was filled with weeds. I had the task of clearing two patches for some new plants. The flower is in (ahem) in a better place, now.
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I like this shot, because these bumblebees have a distinct spot on their backs. I don't recall ever seeing that before. I wonder what other details there are among these busy workers, and what it all means.
This angle shows the large bottom portion of an insect. It is referred to as the buttocks, or sometimes tookus. (Tee hee!)
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I wish I had shoes and a tripod when I got this one. (I was swimming.) This was a huge nest in the backyard of our host's next-door neighbor. Huge, to me, means about 18 inches high, and 12 inches wide. There was one bee or wasp at the bottom, but I couldn't identify it, and didn't want to get too close. I'm not as brave as David McMahon, who acts like Crocodile Dundee around Yukon grizzlies.
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Funny thing... as many bees and wasps as we saw (and there were plenty), they really didn't bug us.
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