Image: Su Leslie 2019
bees
Wordless Wednesday
Stillness in motion
Bees are amazing to watch, especially when they’re hovering. Somehow In this shot I managed to capture the wings looking motionless.
My running just to stand still is never so elegant.
“dusted with spices from a million flowers”
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” ― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
Words are ingredients that writers can combine in infinite ways. And as good cooks sustain and nourish and delight us with the products of their craft, so too will good writers. Sometimes it is the smallest phrases — the careful choice and arrangement of just a few words — that bursts into our consciousness and remains a delicious memory long after we put down the book.
For this week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge | delicious
Bee happy
Increasingly, one of my greatest pleasures while travelling is discovering new public gardens.
Today it was Victoria Esplanade, in Palmerston North. I arrived a little late to explore much of the park, but was very happy wandering around the gardens near the cafe, watching bees feasting on the abundant flowers.
Friday flowers
Seen in Government Gardens, Rotorua. Was it really two weeks ago already? Image: Su Leslie 2019
Hidden from the naked eye
The moment of pupation. Monarch caterpillar transforming into a chrysalis. Image: Su Leslie 2017Macro photography truly does change the way it’s possible to see the world; focusing in on tiny details unobserved by the naked eye, and saving them as so many pixels on a computer chip.
Emerging butterfly. The fully formed Monarch butterfly breaks free. Image: Su Leslie 2017
All that remains of the Monarch’s chrysalis stage.. Image: Su Leslie 2017From the life-cycle of a monarch caterpillar to the fine hairs on a bee’s body, what seemed hidden is revealed.
Bee and blossom. Image: Su Leslie 2017Posted to Hidden | One Word Sunday, hosted by Debbie at Travel with Intent.
Feast
Making a feast of the garlic chive flowers. Image: Su Leslie 2018
Last autumn, a large clump of garlic chives in my garden flowered prolifically and proved incredibly popular with the neighbourhood bees.
Bee buffet. Image: Su Leslie 2018
I spent part of one afternoon mesmerised by the sheer number buzzing around the flowers, and trying to capture the scale of the feast with my camera. Photos just don’t do it justice, and I didn’t think to switch to video mode.
Less enjoyable, but no less fascinating, last year I watched a preying mantis make short work of a monarch caterpillar. It really was a bit gruesome, but of course not all of nature’s creatures are as attractive as bees.
Preying mantis devouring Monarch caterpillar. Image: Su Leslie 2017
Or perhaps vegetarianism is easier to watch.
DP Photo Challenge: prolific
Prolific. Both the chive flowers themselves, and the bees feasting on their pollen. Image: Su Leslie, 2018
Our local bees seem to really love pollen from the garlic chive flowers. I guess the prolificacy of one encourages that of the other.
This week the Daily Post Challenge is to interpret prolific. And since it’s Friday, how better to do that than with flowers.
Garlic-infused honey, at source?
If Manuka honey is valuable because the beneficial properties of the plant are transferred to the honey, do bees snacking on garlic chive pollen make honey with the extra cough-curing power of garlic?
Just wondering.
