What a day yesterday was, it was so beautiful, warm, the afternoon temperature hit 18C (64F) . Nice. It will be getting warmer very quickly now and in the next month the average afternoon temps should be around 25C-27C(77-80F), not much warmer, but now and then we will hit a 30C (86F), and sometimes a degree or more higher. Our temperatures are pretty steady and I love these temperatures.
Anyways, back to the story. A few of us were sitting down by the poor, taking an afternoon break from our work, this included one of my nephews. Our plastic pool chairs have all perished suddenly and are not safe for sitting on so they are piled up, awaiting a trip to the dump. I don't know why they all suddenly died this year, but I think that maybe they have a very specific lifetime. So...the cedar chairs were all used up and I decided that I wanted to sit on the grass, I would prefer that because I love the earth.
I was sitting at a bird's eye view level and I saw close to the ground many, many tiny little flying insects. Upon a closer look (now that is why I am grateful I was sitting on the ground), I saw that many of these little insects were going into tiny holes in the ground. They were probably not much longer than 1/2 inch in length. I looked more and there were hundreds of these tiny little holes all over the place. So I looked even closer and laid down and began to observe these little critters. These are the little flyers that always go into the swimming pool that I always rescue cause they sting people. The sting is very light, but it can be felt for surely, no whelt, just a little pinch, if that is how it could be referred to.
What I saw astounded me. These little tiny insects must be a wild bee of a sort. They had pollen on their hind tarsi!!!!! And they were taking this beautiful little tiny amounts of pollen down into the holes. Feeding their babies I would venture. I was delighted. I got my camcorder and my digital camera and began to take pictures like crazy. So did my nephew, if I wasn't videograping, he was digitalling (like my "jargon"). We would trade cameras and between the two of us got some pretty neat pictures. (One day I will be able to post pics of these little beauties). I watched the bees closely for a long time. People think that I am weird (LOLL) and tease me about it all the time about my bug interests, but don't you think that they weren't interested too (LOLL). My brother-in-law kept telling me to come and see the ones that were landing on his legs to take a picture, they had pollen too. Every time I came close to take a picture the bee would fly away. Well, glad anyways, he has really hairy legs and would make a horrible picture, all that black hair in amongst the pretty little bee (LOL&L).
That was a beautiful bit of time that I spent outside, still thanking goodness to this day that I prefer to sit on the ground.
My husband is going to complete my tomato greenhouse today and I am setting in many, many tomato plants that I have grown in my greenhouse. They are getting huge!!!! I have transplanted them two times. The first time deeply, way up past the second set of leaves. The second time that I transplanted them into 4 inch pots, I took the leaves off the lower part of the stem and slowly bent the stem around in a circle in the pot underground and now these tomato plants have thick, tough stems above ground and the twined stem underground will be covered in roots. Now when these are transplanted the last time into the greenhouse, the rootball that will be with them should be enormous, with so many many little hair roots that they can absorb all the nutrients from the soil with ease, to make them grow strong and tall, and provide me with lots of fruit set, and thousands and thousands of flowers for all my bees and all the other wonderful pollinators that I know will visit the plants. Yeah!!!!!
I was explaining yesterday to my nephew that was so interested in watching these little bees with me, that these little bees that we were observing get the pollen on their legs from visiting trees and plants. I told him that the pollen that was on their legs was spread from plant to plant and this is what makes plants give us food. I told him that if the little pollinators (explained there were many, many insects that pollinate) did not pollinate these plants, that the plants would not provide any food for us to eat. He was so interested. I got such a kick out of him, he is 14 and he was held spellbound.
This nephew is the most curious of all the kids that I know and I love that side of him, a very special young man.
Well, hope this story made you all wanna go out and look for teeny tiny little bees (LOLL). Have a wonderful day, best of this life and good health. Cindi
Topic: Teeny, tiny, little wild bees (Read 13729 times)