a Bee's eye view

What is a bee's most favourite colour, I wonder.  Right now it appears to be the showy red flowers on the hollyhock under the kitchen window which is full of the busy-ness and buzzy-ness of the bee population today.

The garden is in full bloom.  The clematis climbing its trellis on the front of the house is a vision of purple blossoms.  The bees are ignoring the clematis.  It doesn't appear to be a purple day for bees.

The front garden is a mass of blooms.  No bees there either.   Red hollyhock blossoms appear to be number one in bee world today.

August is a gentle time in the garden - well, apart from the mosquitos and the weeding, watering and mowing.  
   Hopefully Mother Nature will take pity and give us a stretch of sunny, summer weather and send the mosquitos somewhere else - anywhere else.  That would be nice. Sitting outside means a burning citronella candle at one's feet, and bug spray containing DEET on one's body. Mosquitos love stationery objects - i.e. woman with book and cold glass of lemonade.  Did you know that mosquitos have grey and black striped legs?  I'm not making this up.

I have now harvested all the potatoes out of the 4 x 4 gardens.  It's a tasty crop of Yukon Golds we're enjoying.  I've seeded more lettuce now that we have almost eaten our way through the first batch.  I haven't tested the potato barrel yet but I have high hopes. 

And in the studio, I'm testing yarn for felting in anticipation of a couple of sock classes scheduled for the fall season at "Stash Needle Art's Lounge" in Inglewood.  The first class will be the construction of boot socks, and the second class, to run in November will be a cheery Christmas sock to keep or give away.  I'll keep you posted as I develop the patterns.

I'm still mad about crocheting snoods on river rocks.   This is found art, temporary art, whimsical art that is dictated by the shape and size of said rock.   Rocks have taken on a whole new meaning and I have a basket of them waiting for decoration.  It's anybody's guess where this is going.

If you have thoughts on preventing scabs on potatoes - send it my way - I'll be very grateful.  In the meantime, have a good week.