Goldfinches

The coneflowers are now way past bee fodder. The seed heads are ripe, which means now the coneflowers are feeding goldfinches. So long as the regular feeders are full of black oil sunflower, it’s easy to keep the cats entertained with flocks of sparrows and house finches. (And yes, I’m afraid that is how they […]

Tomato, tomato, tomato

Today a monarch flew right in my face and danced off laughing at me. Has it been watching Venture Brothers? Meanwhile, my one tomato plant, Early Girl, has cluster after cluster of sweet nuggets that get redder by the hour. And the volunteer tomato is nearly ready for a taste test. I see lots of […]

Wrong again

Just because it’s in the swath where I scattered sunflower seeds doesn’t mean this is a sunflower. I can understand mistaking a syrphid fly for a bee, or hemp dogbane for milkweed, or the various other misidentifications I have made. But you’d think I’d recognize a Black-Eyed Susan when every summer I walk around admiring […]

Coneflower

As I said earlier, the coneflowers have been a happening place for bees since the middle of July. Other flowers have been popular party places, but nothing seems to have attracted so many bees for so long as the coneflowers. There’s still lots of bees, but the flowers are getting a bit ratty looking, and […]

Snapdragons

The snapdragons have been flowering for about a month now. I’ve been leaning in to get a whiff of their bubblegum / tutti frutti scent from time to time. And then I saw the weirdest bee. This was right after Readercon, so finding out what it was sort of got lost in the shuffle. And […]

Hawkweed

Lately these leggy yellow flowers are all over the coneflowers. They look a bit like dandelion flowers, but the dandelion flowered in spring; it’s high summer now, totally the wrong season. Plus there are candelabra of flowers on each plant, and it’s a lot taller. Hawkweed. So, any guesses why I’m interested in it?

What Butterfly Bush?

You know you’re obsessed with bees when you buy a Butterfly Bush (or Buddleia) because there are gigantic bees buzzing all over it. Meanwhile, there was a plant sprouting in my yard that I half-knew what it was but couldn’t quite name it, until I plunked down the storebought Buddleia. I took one look and […]

Goldenrod

The coneflowers have been feeding bees for weeks now. So have the veronica, the wood sorrel, the St. John’s wort, and the bladder campion. It’s starting to get boring, all that growing and flowering and growing and flowering. Even the squash blossoms are getting familar. So it’s nice to see goldenrod join the crowd, complete […]

Squash lift veil of mystery

Which mystery squash do you pick?

The sunflower is dead, long live the sunflower

Already that huge sunflower has gone from a feast for bees to a feast for goldfinches.