Worker Bee is Buzzzzy

Now that I am back among the employed, and feel like I am contributing to the success of the hive. I have been pondering the absence of Bees in our yard this year. A couple of years ago beekeepers started to find complete colonies of honeybees had just vanished, sometimes leaving a few sick, dying or dead individuals at the hive. A widening mystery, this has begun to impact commercial crop pollination in agricultural regions of the country.

Tricia and I are blessed with a wonderful yard that is full of flowers and flowering shrubs and trees. We have developed this over the past few years as a habitat for birds and other animals in our neighborhood. One of the delights every year is watching the honeybees and bumblebees busily working from flower to flower doing their jobs, keeping their colonies alive. This year we have only seen a couple of honeybees and about a quarter the number of bumblebees we normally see.

Colony Collapse Disorder is killing bees faster than they can reproduce, and this could have a disastrous on the world's agriculture. Is this the bee world's version of our current economic collapse? Are the worker bees losing their jobs, becoming homeless, and starving on the streets? What is happening to the queens? Are they losing their crowns to an unseen enemy?

A number of Corporations have joined the fight against Colony Collapse Disorder. Take a look at what others are doing to help:

http://www.burtsbees.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?contentPageId=531&catalogId=10051&storeId=10001&langId=-1

http://www.greatsunflower.org/en/forum/general-discussion/latest-information-colony-collapse-disorder-thedailygreen-com

http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/

Please get involved! Without bees, crops can't get pollinated, which means less fruit and vegetables, which means more expensive fruit and vegetables. Be a good worker bee and support this hive called earth!!!!!!

Peace

Weather, or not...

Weather fascinates me. Rain, Sleet, Snow, Wind, Sunshine, Clouds, Hail; it all is amazing.

I have been known to pull off the road to watch a sunset, or stand in amazement as rain comes down in buckets. I can't resist, I guess it's the science nerd in me.

Weather also makes for some interesting photo ops. Too bad I can't spend all my time snapping the shutter release.

This morning it was foggy when I got up, this afternoon the sun played peek-a-boo from behind the clouds, one of the great things about the weather; it is never the same. Weather helps make life interesting. Next time it rains, stop, take a few deep breaths and enjoy the moment. Complaining won't make it stop, so let's enjoy it.

Sleeping in - one of life's little joys

Ahhh, Saturday morning. A time to snuggle up with Tricia and the cats and be lazy. Sometimes I am amazed at how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family. Saturday morning has always been our time for being together and just being. After this morning that will change. My new job schedule will require me to work weekends, so Tricia and I won't have our weekend time together to be lazy, explore, run errands together or any of the fun things we have always done. It will be difficult, but hopefully I will be able to get back to having at least one weekend day off soon.

When one door closes another opens

I have neglected my blog for a few weeks while I have been learning the ins and outs of my new job. It is amazing how much harder it is to learn when you are in your mid fifties than it was thirty years ago. Thinking about new things can really tax one's brain. I was as comfortable in my last job as I am in my favorite slippers. Having my position yanked out from beneath me was quite a suprise and a shock! After a few months of searching in this terrible economic climate, I was fortunate to find a position. The door that closed was an old and familiar one, the new door seemed to have some dark and scary things behind it Luckily my eyes are becoming accustomed to the dark, and the things that seemed scary are coming into focus and aren't as bad as they seemed.

Right now I am sitting at the computer watching two Male Rufous Hummingbirds zip around the yard checking the new flowers on our Red Flowering Currant in the backyard. They are bright iridescent copper colored and they are tiny. We are very lucky to have a lot of different birds who visit our yard or fly over on a regular basis.

Our return to Africa is all arranged, we only have car rental arrangements left. Everything else has been sorted out and confirmed. One week of wildlife rehabilitation classes followed by a week in Kruger National Park. (For those who are interested, Kruger is over twice the size of Yellowstone National Park!

Spring has sprung

Spring is here, though by the weather you might not guess that winter is gone. We have a heavy frost this morning, and yesterday we had a tremendous windstorm with driving rain that blew through. Our heavy snows are gone

and some of the early Rhododendrons and bulbs are starting to bloom.

Each spring Tricia and I look forward to the explosion of color that will replace our winter garden browns. Our yard is a year round sanctuary for birds, squirrel, raccoon, and other wildlife. As spring continues into summer our yard becomes a quiet sanctuary for Tricia and me too.

This past week, I started a new job after three months of being unemployed. It feels good to be back into a work routine, though I was starting to like sleeping in.

African Birds are amazing!

While in South Africa we were able to see over 100 species of birds that were new to us. So many people go on Safari looking for the Big 5, and large animals, but we found that the birds and smaller critters were truly amazing.

From the tiny African Firefinch to Pied Kingfisher, to the Goliath Heron (The Largest Heron in the world at Five Feet!) birds were everywhere and so colorful.

We were fortunate because we booked an extra two days, so wegot our ranger all to ourselves for an entire day of birding on the preserve, Something we wouldn't have been able to do with the entire group.

Brown Hooded Kingfisher

Turacao

Pied Kingfisher

Torti Cats

If you are wondering, yes we have a conclave of cats. six tortishells and one Torbi and white. If you think , yeow that's a lot of cats, let me qualify this with the fact that my wife is a Veterinarian, who is a feline spcialist. Having lots of pets seems to be a hazard of the job.
Our girls are quite special, and get along great. Now this many cats is not recommended for everyone, as disasterous results can occur. Our cats are mostly indoor types, though our backyard has Purrfect Fence cat fencing, which keeps our girls in and safe from other cats and predators. The fencing also keeps the birds that visit our yard safe from the mighty hunters on the inside of the fence. You can see their product at http://www.purrfectfence.com/. Our cats love being able to go outside, and we love the security it offers our girls.