Nature's Way

A few things have happened recently that reminded me that nature has its own way of carrying on the cycle of life – and death – that we are all part of.

The other evening, round about 8:30 or 9:00, we noticed a cyclist stop and lean his bike against our fence. He bent down and seemed to be looking at something. He then crossed the road (not much more than a car’s width) and put something into the hedge, returned to his bike and cycled off. All of about two minutes passed before curiosity got the better of the husband and he had to go out and see what was going on. He waved me out to join him and showed me what the cyclist had found and tried to put back in the hedge. It was the tiniest baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. There was nothing we could do to help it. It cheeped and cheeped to be fed, very loudly considering how tiny it was. We can only hope that the mummy bird heard its baby and came to feed it after we left. I took some photos of the wee thing; isn't it the cutest baby you've ever seen?

On Tuesday, late afternoon, the husband was doing a bit of work at the apiary. Just adding another couple of supers for the bees to keep honey in. One of the hives is now five supers high so we reckon there's going to be a bumper honey harvest soon. With the experience gained in bee-keeping over the past few years, the husband has managed to keep the bees from swarming this year and has also managed to increase their numbers. Only another few weeks and we’ll extract the honey. I’ll try and get as many photos as possible to let you see the whole process.

 

 

Isn't the crocosmia (montbretia) lovely? That variety is called Lucifer. Anyway, the husband beckoned to me to come out to the back of our house. He pointed to the ground which was crawling with drones. Our honey bees have decided that they have just about come to the end of their honey-making season and so they have dumped out almost all of the drones from the hives. They keep a few through the winter but the majority of them are expelled and left to die. Look at how brave I am to have them crawling over my hand!

Actually, I’m not brave at all; the drones have no sting. They were so tickly walking over my hand.

 

This morning I noticed this cheeky rabbit sauntering nonchalantly across the lawn and getting himself into the bed with the glauca. We have the garden well fenced - supposedly rabbit-proof - but they still manage to get in! He seemed to just be nibbling the grass round the side of the bed. Hopefully he didn't later tuck into the new geraniums!

 

Lovely!! Hope you enjoyed my little look at nature.