 Taxes are done, it's time to celebrate Spring. To celebrate it, I will decorate with pictures. First up is a picture of lovely tulips in bloom below the deck. This is a bird's eye view of them. Amy planted them last fall. Usually I plant tulips but I was afraid to touch them. When I plant tulips we usually move the next spring so I wasn't about to jinx this house.
The last thing I wanted to show you is Bernie the Bumblebee. This little guy was here last year doing this same thing. Or it's his counterpart. The male bees only live a few weeks. The queen lives for a year. So, this must be Bernie 2. Did you ever have a bumblebee stare you in the face? This bee has spent all day hovering around our bbq. That's why I was able to take this picture. Bernie was hovering a foot away from me. He hovered for a few minutes then moved to another spot. I put my finger under him, just two inches away from his underside, and raised it up slowly. He raised himself up maintaining his two inch clearance the whole way. He turned around and looked at me for a minute or so. I wondered what he is trying to do hovering like that all day. Then suddenly he shot straight up and darted over the house. But then he was back a moment later.
April 21, 2005--Additional information about Bernie. Turns out Bernie is a carpenter bee and not a bumblebee. That explains the weird behavior of hovering and how they can chew such a perfectly rounded hole in wood. Here's a link to the information: University of Kentucky Entomology. |
Big, big project this weekend. I have lamented about having no window in the first floor bathroom ever since we looked at this place. It was so claustrophic in that bathroom. Well, today Bill made brightness and cheer happen in there. He cut through the tile, the drywall and the sheet rock and, voila, instant opening. Well, it wasn't so instant but he ended up with an opening ready for the window he purchased at Lowe's yesterday. What a struggle he had with the dust from the tile cutting. Ingenious as he always is, he got the dust to settle down so he could see his way back to the opening. He has spent all the rest of the day fitting the window in and covering back up the outside. Whaddaguy! I love how persistent he is when he gets started on a project. He won't stop till it's done. Here's a picture of him after he found the opening to the cave. You can't imagine, since you haven't seen it in the before picture, how wonderful and cheery it is now in the after picture in there.
We think that maybe he was protecting the hole that he had been chewing in our deck steps. At one time, we saw him tangle with two other bees at the same time. So, it's quite probable that it was a territory thing. He probably thinks that we are one large bumblebee but he's just not sure if he should tackle us. If only he really knew that one little sting from his bum would take us down.