Sadly, a casualty from the weekend’s hail storm.
Bumble Bee: is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere although they also occur in South America. They have been introduced to New Zealand and the Australian state of Tasmania.
Bumblebees are social insects that are characterised by black and yellow body hairs, often in bands. However, some species have orange or red on their bodies, or may be entirely black. Another obvious (but not unique) characteristic is the soft nature of the hair (long, branched setae), called pile, that covers their entire body, making them appear and feel fuzzy.
They are best distinguished from similarly large, fuzzy bees by the form of the female hind leg, which is modified to form a corbicula: a shiny concave surface that is bare, but surrounded by a fringe of hairs used to transport pollen (in similar bees, the hind leg is completely hairy, and pollen grains are wedged into the hairs for transport).
Like their relatives the honey bees, bumblebees feed on nectar and gather pollen to feed their young.
- - from Wikipedia
GROW IT: radish
There is this little raised bed on the side of someone’s garage. I walk by it all the time on my way home. Yesterday I noticed a handful of small red radish top pushing their way out of the soil. This tiny garden never ceased to amaze me.
EAT IT: this is the pesto I made from our gracious gift.
I used the recipe found on Hank Shaw’s Honest Food blog. I used pistachios and mostly the leaves. It has a nice mild taste. I can’t wait to spread it on some toast or make a yummy pasta dinner.
These are some of the wild onions our friend dropped off at our place after his walk woods.
jenny and tom.
GROW IT: sidewalk sage
walking home this afternoon I spied this rogue sage escaping from the front yard of someone’s house.
“Charles Bukowski, hero of angsty teenagers the world over, instructs us to “find what you love and let it kill you”. Suicide by creativity is something perhaps to aspire to in an age where more people know Katie Price better than the Emperor concerto. “
- - James Rhodes, concert pianist
This article in the Guardian has me thinking about gardening as art, as an act of expression and as an absolute need. Not just for the rewards that the garden present us with, but for the actual need to get dirty, to work hard, to plan a garden and let it grow.
“Can he who has discovered only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to have discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant for his ivory be said to have “seen the elephant”? These are petty and accidental uses—just as if a stronger race were to kill us in order to make buttons and flageolets of our bones—for everything may serve a lower as well as a higher use. Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it will rather preserve its life than destroy it.”
(via conscientious)
READ IT: abstract city by christoph niemann
