Celebrating Pollen with Jasna Guy: ArtStarts Weekend Workshops

I was pleased to pitch in and help participants explore bees and pollen with a workshop devised and lead by Jasna Guy through ArtStarts. The results were fabulous!  And we got to celebrate the 20th birthday of ArtStarts four times!!!!

The Wooly Carder Bees Have Emerged

 The wooly carder bees have emerged in all their fierce cuteness. They wait on the edge of what they consider their territory and chase off all other bees. Last week the edge of this garden bed hosted two other native bees taking turns resting, but this week it's been taken over of the carder bee. Is her tongue split in half?

The blackberries are blooming an you can see that warm grey pollen collected on the corbiculae of the honeybee. (Who is pretty darned cute herself.)

Of Macro and Miracles

 

Sometimes when you find a new friend, it's like a miracle. It's like a new piece of your life shifts, falls into place and somehow allows you to move more easily in the world. It's a mitzvah. There are many things that have brought new friends into my life: art, food, and bees and when all three of these favourite passions of mine come together it's a case of triple happiness. So it is with my new friend and colleague, J. G.

Through her generosity there are new colours in my life and a new way of seeing the world. OMG, it's MACRO!!!!!!

I gave her SLR with its macro lens a twirl today in the afternoon light. Of course, most of my pics were out of focus, but even the soft photos revealed new things about flowers I didn't see before. I am falling even more deeply in love with plants as a result of seeing them from this point of view. It's the velvety textures, the soft vulnerable sexuality of plants, the bold drama of nectar guides that I could barely see before. I can hardly contain my excitement and fear this may create in me a new form of paraphilia--macro erotica!

Can you see it? Can you feel the love?

I am losing some of the sharpness in my vision (partly from age, partly from what happened when I gave birth) so being able to suddenly bump up that capacity feels like a miracle. It makes me want to eke out every moment of the dying light of a November afternoon, my face buried deep in the nectaries of flowers and the crevices of kale.

Kiss Your Aster

Well, don't take me literally because if you did kiss your aster, chances are you'd end up with bee stung lips. If you have planted asters in your garden, pat yourself on the back. You are helping the honeybees at at time of the year when forage is getting scarce. This aster is right by a patch of blooming borage in my neighbor's yard. It catches the afternoon sun and it was much appreciated by the sisters.

Did you see the Harvest moon on Thursday night? Did you see the ring around the harvest moon? Today I celebrated with participating in a honey harvest at Urban Homesteader. Pics to follow soon!

Pollen Gets in Your Eyes

I had a great time this morning helping beekeeper Stephanie give hive tours at UBC Farm. Here's photographic evidence of how pollen (from a zucchini blossom) sticks to the hairs on a honeybee, even the hairs in her large compound eyes on either side of her head. Sometimes a bee will land on you to take a rest and groom the pollen out of her eyes. It's a great opportunity to get up close and personal with a honeybee without feeling threatened. Face it, she's just not that into you. Bees are into gymnosperms. BTW, did you notice the tiny hairs on the edges of the blossom?

Poppy Pollen Addict

Yesterday I noticed a honeybee foraging in one of Catherine's  poppies, so I moved in for a photo. She was so loaded with the black pollen she could barely fly. She landed on a lemon balm leaf to groom--it seemed as though she had pollen grains in her eyes and couldn't see very well. Interesting that you can see tiny hairs on this leaf--I've noticed bees like to land on hairy leaves. Look at how much pollen is on her head and thorax! It looks blue-grey in the sunlight, but in the shade it is dark sooty black.

Here is a good shot of her grooming and look at that pollen load! I have never seen such a large pollen load on a honeybee. Amazing!

Now this is a plant that put in last year and it didn't bloom until now. IIRC it is dyer's alkanet. I'm interested to see if the bees like it.

The sweet cicely looks ethereal when it is backlit.

Red and Black