Opened up the standing sun umbrella on the patio to avoid cooking my noodle while I sat there ( the patio is south-facing and gets quite hot). I found the beginnings of a wasp nest attached to the fabric of the tent structure. It was the honeycomb style. A little further away was the beginning of another, perhaps the first attempt, abandoned for whatever reason only known to the wasp. It was literally only one cell.
I knocked off the first attempt and the second structure and opened the patio umbrella fully so it shaded the table and chairs. A few minutes later the wasp comes back, lands on the pole...only to find that the territory it was familiar with had changed and yet the essence is the same; black metal pole, orientation and layout and no doubt the same pheromones in the area. No matter how much it walked up and down the pole, it never came in contact with the fabric as it was no longer collapsed but now held open. The wasp then began to fly in wider circles and after about 15 minutes of flying on the same tangent, it was assured that the angle wasn't wrong, it was just the fabric and relationship to the pole. Smart wasp.
Journal Says It All
Salmonberry
These shrubs are found from California to Alaska and
are native to the Pacific West Coast. The berry looks very
similar to a raspberry but tastes nothing like one. Its
flavour is very mellow without the exciting burst of a
raspberry. Some people call the flavour insipid but I think
that is a little harsh. The bees love these early blooming
shrubs and the understory of a shady conifer forest is
quite often astonishingly busy with the rumble of
bumblebees getting the job done. It is not unusual to be
hit in the face by a bumblebee as you walk down a forest
path. Clearly they are engrossed in their bee business and
don't look up in time.
Towhee
The Spotted Towhee is one of my favourite backyard
birds. There is always one shuffling about under the lilac
trees. You can find them in the woods too, not just in
gardens, but really, it's like having a loyal puppy
scrabbling about the tulips. They have an entertaining way
of searching for food, which consists of them doing a
little two foot hop shuffle. Hop forward and shuffle back.
It turns up the leaves and undergrowth to expose insects
and so forth. If you watch crows, they tend to use their
bills to flip leaves over or to turn over clods of dirt.
The Spotted Towhee uses both feet instead. They can make a
hell-of-a-noise in the quiet woods as you can imagine a
bear shuffling slowly about but no, it's just the Towhee
with his crazy, red staring eyes.
Finches
I don't get many House Finches at my feeder
currently, only about six or so. Rarely do I get a Purple
House Finch. I have only seen one in the fall and one again
last month. Apparently they are somewhat more shy than the
other birds and tend not to compete at the feeders. I had
always wondered what they looked like but I sure figured it
out in a hurry because their colouring can only be
described as alizarin crimson.
Skunk Cabbage
I love seeing the skunk cabbage break out of its
muddy home in the spring. They are truly bright yellow and
seem to glow in the shady forest. The leaves grow to quite
a large size by summertime, some reaching an easy 1m in
length. People DO go on about the smell of the skunk
cabbage but really, it is hardly worth the hysteria. Yes,
you CAN smell a musty odor in the air as you come across a
patch in bloom, but it is nothing to wring your hands over.
The smell attracts beetles and flies for pollination.
Termite Surprise
Termites are generally categorized by the food that they
eat, so there are the dampwood termites, the drywood,
subterranean, soil feeding and grass feeding. My friend at work found these
Dampwood termites as she was ripping up the rotting
patio. It was the perfect location for them as these
kind of termites enjoy wood that stays moist and this
patio certainly did that as it would get bathed in the
sprinkler system that went off in the nursery during
the dry summer months and nevermind mentioning the
long months of the rainy season. Their homes are quite
cozy as you won't find huge termite mound nests with
the Dampwoods. These termites live in galleries chewed
throughout the rotting wood. Often the galleries are
plugged with their fecal pellets to maintain a high
humidity and the gallery chamber walls are nibbled to
a fine silky-smooth finish. No self-respecting termite
wants to get splinters everywhere.
Garden Work
First lawn mowing of the new lawn.
Planted: 6 banana potatoes
Baby Mesculun Lettuce
Radishes "Cherry Belle"
Raspberry Canes
Peas "Lincoln Homesteader"
Noticed female bees had eaten through their cocoons. Hooray!
Am: +4 cloudy
PM: +11 sunny!
Busy Busy
Okay we filled up the raised garden beds. We had them made up by a friend who has the tools and the know-how. Yes, that's right I can't knock two pieces of wood together without injuring myself, or passersby. We decided to plant the following ( after much deliberation and re-doing of the garden blueprint).
Red Onions
Walla Walla Onions
Bunching Green Onions
Chives
Spinach
Garlic
Arugula
Cilantro
Still need to get potatoes, peas and the raspberry canes in.
Mason Bees
It's that time of year again when the mason bees are
breaking out of their little mud plugged holes. I've
gathered together my mason bee tubes in one location near
their homes and refilled their homes with fresh new tubes.
Last year I didn't have much luck with them repopulating
their home but I wonder if it was because I moved their bee
house in mid bee business. I had too, as the house was too
exposed to the weather and the cardboard tubes that they
inhabit were getting wet by the sideways rain. That kind of
moisture in the tube leads to mite infestation so the bee
man told me. My best bet was to move the house and hope for
the best. Well, I've had a few tubes inhabited and now, the
mud plugs have been broken open, so there has been some
activity. The males come out first before the females. The
females will break out in a few weeks if the weather holds.