Hungry Bee

Last winter, very late in the afternoon, I encountered a lone bee on my steps. It was getting chilly, and being aware of how far away the beehives are, I figured she might have been too tired to make it home. There wasn't much blooming in the garden.

So I got this idea in my head that some honey might help her. I went inside and dipped a toothpick into a jar of (yes, organic local unfiltered) honey and set it in front of her. It worked. She drank for quite a while.

Then she wandered over to the edge of the stairs, and later she was gone.

I imagine after she got back to the hive, she started a religion.

Happy Earth Day!

I thought all you gardeners might appreciate this.

The Demise of Deborah's Garden

Probably most of you have moved on and forgotten about me. I know it's been that long. I not only abandoned my garden blog, but I abandoned my poor garden. Here is why:

Last spring, everything was humming along as usual, except that there was no rain. That was okay, though, we'd installed a sprinkler system to take care of these things. With no rain in this part of the country, it just gets hotter and hotter, and soon we were into an early heat-wave. Then the pump to our well broke. While I've spent years building up the organic topsoil in my garden, what lies beneath is pure sand. So, with the heat rising and the sun beating down on my garden, it started to wilt. We were frantically running around with hoses trying to get as much as we could with city water, but my garden was never designed for that, and the hoses barely reached. The hydrangeas were the first to go. Then one-by-one everything else started wilting. By the time we replaced the pump it was too late for my garden. I lost a lot and it was still only spring. The heat and drought were just getting started. So, I threw up my hands and gave up. It was too hot for weeding an such anyhow.

Then during the summer our creek went weird. It stank. It smelled like raw sewage--like an old-fashioned outhouse. The stench was so strong it burned our nasal passages. We had all kinds of environmental people over. We are downstream from a sewage plant, but they weren't owning up to anything.

It was gross. The water was milky-looking and bubbly. I retreated permanently upstairs. They sorted it out eventually, but between the oil spill of 2010, the drought, the neighbors who had a junkyard business, and finally the creek being polluted, we've decided to move on. Away from Florida, away from the heat. So, when we have our new home, I will have a new garden. I'll pop in a few observations from time to time, but I really just don't go downstairs and garden anymore.

Meanwhile, I've been upstairs at my computer making pretty things. Do check out my new blog, Deborah's Art.