“I’ve seen spring come to the orchard every year as far back as I can remember and I’ve never grown tired of it.”
- Lynn Austin, Hidden Places

Today’s photo challenge is spring. When I think of spring, I think of new life, the birds, insects and animals who have been hidden away all winter, and the new blossoms and greenery of the Earth. I especially think of cherry blossoms! When I saw this little bee working busily away among these fresh new blossoms, all I could think of was spring!

bumble bee visiting a red camellia

Oops, has it been that many weeks since I last posted? The time is a blur of busyness and exhaustion. I’ve learned something about the source of that exhaustion and will share it with you in a moment.

Work has been packed with more than just weekday tasks. Meetings and events often cross over from business hours into evenings and weekends.

I am also an amateur nature photographer and, well… Spring hit my neck of the woods late February! My husband has to drag me inside at sunset from the outdoors and my camera. Every flower, flowering tree and bee calls to me!

Speaking of bees, have you ever noticed that bumble bees will curl up and fall asleep in the last flower they visited at the end of a busy day of buzzing? I learned this recently by observation and then confirmed it via Google. The things you learn when you pay attention.

So, back to the exhaustion. For several weeks I was dragging around, never feeling rested in spite of plenty of sleep and often having an upset stomach.

I don’t know about you, but I pray about everything. For me it isn’t necessarily a set time of morning or evening. I share my day with God as I live it because I know He walks beside me 24/7.

Anyway, one day a couple weeks ago, I told Him I was so tired and queasy again. An immediate, soft-spoken thought crossed my mind, cut back on caffeine and sugar. Hmmm. I thought about it and realized for weeks I had been drinking more than my usual coffee quota and had also been drinking cola, unusual for me.

The very next day I reduced my caffeine back to the usual norm, two cups of coffee. I cut out soda entirely and cut sweets back, too. My body responded within a couple of days. No more sick tummy and bouncing back came my energy! I had been relying on caffeine and sugar to give me the pick-me-up I needed on busy days and it had gone to ‘the dark side’. The more of both I was taking in, the worse I felt.  They don’t tell you that in the commercials.

Once again, moderation wins the day! And thanks to my Savior who walks beside me and answers the smallest of prayers. I am always eternally grateful.

Silly Sparrow, wishing you all a very Happy Spring!

P.S. Take a moment, smell a flower, watch a bee buzzing happily from bloom to bloom, and think of me.

Fuzzy Bumble Bee

Vallejo, California, United States, North America

© Phillip Frost 2013

The cake for a 3 years old had to include the Camero car, therefore I had to look up what is the recommended sponge cake for sculpting.

I found a nice and really easy to work with recipe, more than that after freezing the cake and defrosting it, the cake remains moist with amazing flavour.

Madeira Cake Recipe  (the tin depends on the final result, I did it in a bread tin)

• 500g of Unsalted butter
• 500g of caster sugar
• 500g of Self-Raising flour
• 250g of plain flour
• 9 eggs.

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C/325 degrees F/Gas 3.
• Grease and line the cake tin with baking parchment.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light, fluffy and pale. Sift the flours together in a separate bowl.
• Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture, one at a time, following each with a spoonful of flour, to prevent the mixture curdling.
• Sift the remaining flour into the creamed mixture and fold in carefully with a large metal spoon. Add the flavouring, if using.
• Transfer to the lined bakeware and bake for 1 1/2 hours. After it is baked wait 10 minutes and get it out of the tin, wrap it in wrap bag and freeze it.
• Start sculpt only frozen cakes, easier to cut and no crumbs, and use a very sharp knife

My final result and my first sculpted project:

Just because it’s that kind of day.

Happy Wednesday. Enjoy.

I used Avon 30 second dry ‘suddenly sunny’ polish and used a dotting pen to create the trail of a bumble bee. I then painted a cute little bumble bee on my thumb!

I quite like this mani, the sunny colour is perfect for spring!

We’ve actually had some sunshine over Easter! It was even warm enough to sit outside for a cup of tea, albeit well wrapped up (us, not the tea). It still feels too early to me to do much planting out of stuff which is often out by this time of year:  better to wait a little longer than put them in when the soil is too cold.

A few gardening jobs got done – including a bit more chopping down of last year’s growth, which I leave on all winter to give insects a protected place to hide. We also got round to moving some foxgloves from the vegetable beds to other locations; I’d have liked to do it earlier, but the weather never seemed to permit it. I got tempted one year to leave some Sweet Rocket (not the salad veg, the one grown for flowers) at the end of a vegetable bed, but never again: it was a superb hiding place for the snails, who all came out at night and ate whatever was in reach. Having cleared the space in this veg bed, we’ve covered the soil over for now, and I’ll get the onion sets in before long.

Sweet Rocket (hesperis matronalis) – highly recommended as a good plant for butterflies and for giving masses of white or purple flowers. Photo May 2009.

Saw one bumble bee visiting the hellebore foetida, and found another buzzing around the greenhouse; I’ve got a tried-and-tested way of gently removing them, by putting a see-through plastic cup over them, then slipping a bit of card under the cup to hold them safe while I transport them outside. No butterflies, though; we have had Orange Tips in early April before now, but I rather hope they won’t turn up too early: there is very little caterpillar foodplant for them of any size yet this year.

The bird activity is high at the moment: it can’t be easy starting a family when the weather is so cold. We are being quite regularly visited by three or four male blackbirds and two females, who are VERY eager to get at the food when we put it out – I’ve been giving them a later-in-the-day top-up recently and when I put some out the other day, one must have been watching me and bounced across the ground towards it faster than I’ve ever seen a blackbird move on the ground – though not as fast as they can fly when a sparrowhawk is after them, when they are positively jet propelled.

I also got some work done in the greenhouse, including pricking out the antirrhinums (snapdragons), and while I was doing it, there were two blackbirds hunting around outside for whatever wild food they could find – see the photos below.

Blackbirds. In the right-hand photo you can also see the hellebore foetida which the bees like so much

An old farmer’s Words of Wisdom we could all live by.

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
*Words that soak into your ears are whispered¦….not yelled.*

*Meanness don’t just happen overnight. *

*Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.*
Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

*It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.*
You cannot unsay a cruel word. Every path has a few puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about, ain’t never gonna happen anyway.
Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

*Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t

bothering you none.*

Timin’ has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply,speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.
Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.

~Steve~                                               H/T FOTM  Reader Ken L
 

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee,
the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain,
and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential,
and fight for your dreams. – Ashley Smith

His eyes they glisten in the sun,
Sparkling love for only her,
Yet a butterfly he calls his friend,
Is somewhere very near.

Oh ladybug oh ladybug,
My heart for you is true,
I cannot love you anymore,
Than what I always do.

The butterfly of whom you fear,
She smiles for you to see,
That nothing more than friendship,
Is what she wants from me.

Everyone just scoffs and laughs,
The dragonfly wants more,
I know he does, it has to be,
We’ve seen it all before.

The dragonfly he bows his head,
A tear forms in his eye,
I can’t explain it anymore,
I’ll love the ladybug till I die.

Just because you don’t believe,
Because you have not known,
It doesn’t mean a friendship true,
Between two friends can’t grow.

A dragonfly I’ll always be,
Your one true love as well,
I’ll promise that with all my heart,
I know that time will tell.

All I ask is one small thing,
That with your heart you’ll see,
A friendship with the butterfly,
Is all that it will be.

You see she loves the bumble bee,
That dances here and there,
The bumble bee that plays with you,
Plays without a care.

Maybe that is not the same,
But maybe you will see,
Look real close and you will know,
He’s your friend the bumble bee.

You share with him your simple thoughts,
You share with him a smile,
Yet you do not share your love with him,
Of that there’s no denial.

On the pages written,
Are the words and thoughts so true,
Nothing more or nothing less,
Shared between the two.

A friendship pure and simple,
That’s all there’ll ever be,
Because my love is just for one,
It’s shared by you and me.

When I was taking pictures of the wisteria, I felt more than heard this lumbering semi-trailer of a bug fly by me.  It was slow, heavy, and totally black.  Kind of like a punk bumble bee with weight issues!

I had never in my life seen a bee like it, so I Googled it; and apparently, it is a Black Bumble bee!  Makes sense!  My husband said I should call it an obese-u-bee.   Wonder what kind of a sting it packs.  Bet I could outrun the sucker.

(Update:  A bug friend said this is a Carpenter Bee.)

This is Bumble Bee {La Cienega Blvd}

This is Banksy {Studio City Starbucks}

Photos: la style setter

Boyf’s current line of chemo, for an in depth description please click HERE.

So far so good. His speech has improved and he is a lot more relaxed, even when he can’t get out what he wants to say, he just laughs. This is a grand improvement! Now we just need to ensure the blood clots on the lungs are monitored and don’t progress with this chemo like they did the last!

Next week I have a surprise for him but on the off chance he may see this (I installed the actual Facebook app on his ipad which he got along with a lot bettee today, so whilst he can’t yet reply at least he can see your messages!) I won’t disclose much else, other than being the best girlfriend/mummy in the entire world and that there will be a majorly big blog to follow on the matter.

Anywho, in regards to the little fella, we now have a partial routine. He sleeps through till 5am, give or take 30mins and is now having rice for breakfast. He went over his feed by 90mins this evening and this was the face I got when I woke up:

So I made him up like a bumble bee as pay back for the dirty looks:

Goodnight!

Seems a bit weird posting this when its snowing outside… But hopefully we’ll be seeing lots of bee’s soon!
(opportunities for more pictures – woop!)

Other things you can get away with when you’re 3 are telling people they’re always wrong, mistaking age very badly and assuming people look much older than they are, and innocently inquiring if every woman they see is pregnant (to their faces). We are all envious of their freedom to speak their mind without hesitation, while we older folks have to hold our tongue and ask these questions using roundabout euphemisms.

Another important thing you can get away with as a 3 year old is playing dress up. If I want to dress like a pirate for the day and carry around a stuffed parrot that I claim can talk? Certifiable. But if a 3 year old does it? Precious. They don’t know how good they have it.

So all of this is to say my “Busy Bee” scarf is a little piece of childhood. Pretend you’re a bumble bee for the day and pay homage to the wondrous world of putting your hands on your lower back and sticking out your stomach as far as you can. There’s only a small window of opportunity to embrace your glorious gut and other socially awkward behaviors until you graduate to the likes of “senile old man in house slippers.”

So play away, young bumble bees, and enjoy this blissful time to the fullest. If you’re interested in pollinating this scarf for your little bee, buzz on over to my Etsy shop.

- Hand-knitted Bee Brooch with 100% Organic British Wool
- Safety pin brooch back

Dimensions
Body – 4cm x 2cm
Wingspan – 4cm

5% of sales donated to Bee Conservation Projects