Flowers. With Mushrooms and Bees.
I went Wildflower Hunting with The Birdchick yesterday, with a Side of Mushroom Hunting. We don't hurt them, more of a shoot and release. Had a great time, didn't know there were so many WILD Flowers out there. I wish to steal some and take them back to my Spooky House. They appear to have no problem growing anywhere, which is what I am needing.
(That and Green Grass which is what I am needing here if anyone has ideas.)
Some mushrooms can be eaten. Some not. It is REALLY important to know which ones can, or cannot. Puffball, Morel, Hen of the Woods and Sulfur Shelf can be eaten, and might be tasty, if you like that sort of thing. It is also impossible to mistake them for the Evil ones that will kill you in seconds.
No one ever said the woods were a friendly place.
These ones are NOT on the approved kindly gentle mushroom list. They were however, beautiful. Beautiful. And deadly maybe. When you find these sorts, take a nice picture and WALK ON...
The Bee News for the day is we are not getting our Russian Bees after all. We were meant to have them last year, and kept getting put off but were told FOR SURE we would have them this year. Then the excuses started again, they claimed the spring there had been very COLD, and they were behind but soon. (This only after me sending them about 8 emails)Same as last summer.
Quick trip to Wunderground.com showed us their spring had so far been well above normal, and a little Googling brought home the fact we were far from the first people who had problems with this company.
Rats. (A stern letter later brought the response that we are getting a check back within a couple of days.)
Now as anyone who works with Bees learns, quickly, you need to order Packages (Bee term for Box-o-bees with Queen) in the fall. End of April is far too late to try and find anyone who has packages left.
I called or emailed every Russian Beekeeper that I could find on the internet. I got helpful "well, try these people" and "Are you kidding, little late aren't you" "Well, those Russians go fast" Actually, I spent about 3 hours talking to a lot of really cool Beekeepers who would have helped if they could have. Most didn't have ANY Bees left.
One did. Making their last delivery next week. Not Russians, we'll have to wait to try them, but Italian (Apis mellifera ligustica) and Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica Pollmann) bees. It seemed a shame to have the new hives, and be ready to start up some new bees, only to be thwarted again.
So next Wednesday, we get Boxes-o-bees. Via UPS.
Bet they don't wait till the end of the day to deliver....
Love and Nature,
Lorraine
73 Comments:
Quite true mushroom words. You can only make that mistake once....many poisonus fungi have no antidote.
Sorry about the bee madness! Maybe their afraid if the bees give you trouble you'll send them back w/ a note attached like an unruly adopted child. (yes, WTF was with that?!?)
House is ready for floors and paint. I work at ben's school tomorrow and then friday we are off to Chi-town. Woot!
I can tell you how to make home made sour cream to go with your mushrooms.
The whole bee thing is just weird. At least the original people are sending you a check. Somehow I'm thinking you had to convince them you would SMITE them if they didn't!
Am loopy because I got all of 2 hours of sleep last night because of someone else's mistake (insomnia + call from work). Whee.
Always wondered about sour cream, and welcome, Ultragotha!
Oh, trust me. I smited. I was pretty pissed. (Angry for you UK types. I don't work drunk.)
I put out seed, and some Lawns Alive natural stuff, and put the sprinkler on.
Now all the kids have come over and are running thru it.
Like that better than a green lawn.
Lord Toni - not when you are already well behind on sleep. Hey people, give the gal a break.
Love the photos Quiche, fungus makes so many amazing shapes.
Running through sprinklers! Fods I miss that. I don't know that we'll ever be allowed to use sprinklers again around here (drought restrictions)
Children "dancing the seeds in," it works! Is a MN Native American tradition even!
:D
Running through the sprinklers, that brings back memories.
Good luck on the green lawn; we have lovely weeds that are mowed to lawn length so from a distance it looks like grass (I tell myself).
the lawn faeries are
dancing the seedlings under
the raining sprinkler
*tick*
Gotta bee careful around them woodland mushrooms. You can get a real buzz off some of them, but hive a bad feeling they could do you a mischief in the long run, honey.
/obligatory puns
My lawn looks like lawn now, but in a month or two it'll be mostly clover. Which brings bees, so that's all right, really.
I'm sad. There are signs up for a lost cat in our neighborhood, and we think we may have encountered it the other night, but not known it was lost (he seemed at home enough at the time). The signs only went up today. Keeping my eyes peeled. Poor little guy. Hope he's just roamin'. :(
aaand tick
Jess, you slay me!
I think I have done everything. Scattered grassseed. And LAWN BE ALIVE stuff. Got the yard waste bags down tot he curb. Gave the hot tub all it's THINGS one adds. Watered the lawn. Walked Venus and Mim. Fed everyone. Cooked steak. Cleaned all the counters in the kitchen.
Is there no DONE? What happens when one lives WITH someone? I can't keep this house up and I live alone and am really really neat.
But every time I look up there's something else.
Fods, I am whine-ing!
New SVU in half an hour, that will cheer me up. As you do, my little Fiends.
I feel like that about parents who both have to work full time. I'm constantly buried under tasks and housework and errands and craziness and I don't even work outside of the house! Although I'm not neat...i'm not dirty but I"m cluttered. I make piles on every flat surface and it drives hubby bazonkers.
I'm cooking steak too! For my little leopard...really, he's a monkey.
Hey, I looked at that stepables.com place you tweeted-- that may be the answer to my front-devil's-strip problems. (It has sinky places, weeds, and hard dirt patches.) Tiny, walkable sedum! Who knew!
In my experience, when one lives with someone, you spend the first year or two cleaning furiously, then gradually resign yourself to the dirt and clutter and not-doneness of it all. Occasionally you will vacuum, and feel virtuous, but it won't last. Eventually you and your partner go out for burgers and beers and tell each other that while you may live in cat hair and chaos, but probably have more fun than other people. And the beers will help you to feel nearly convinced.
It's good thing. A good thing! Honestly.
I love the mushroom pics. Very pretty. Sorry about the bees. That really sucks. Hope the new bees will be wonderful.
My lawn looks like crap {needs mowing} but it's green {and white with cover} Problem is when you fertilize THEN you have to mow more! Between acre of yard and 15 in pastures I live on mower or tractor/bush hog. The only thing I sprinkle is the covered arena. LOL
I get nervous when everything is not in its place. Here, not at work, pretty chaotic there. Might be why.
Walkable sedum. I am just going to buy a LOT of stuff and put it everywhere. WILD NINJA GARDENING. Only the strong will survive!!!!!
Vinity, we sprinkle our areana too! Maybe I will bring DIm over some day and let him POOP everywhere and eat all the clover I am going to plant, lol!
Walkable sedum! It's a revelation. And sedum is my favorite plant. Ooo! There's another good plant for you: a Bertram Anderson sedum. Smaller than the variety you usually see, with dark blue leaves purple-red flowers. I got one last year-- it's cute.
Chantrelle has reminded me: we finally got the guest room painted! After like a year of not getting around to it. It's purple now. (Seems to be a trend.) I'm not sure about it. Need to get rid of the ugly blue carpet in there before I'll feel comfortable with it, I think.
Our guest room is purple too! Used to be my office, i picked the color then. Yay for purple love.....oh, and wine this evening. Yes, happy and hug-filled here.
Now I'm hungry for mushrooms. :(
The guy I may or may like invited me to go to Baton Rouge, but I was in class yesterday when he called, so by the time I called him back he was already on his way. I'm thinking if he didn't like me he wouldn't have invited me on a road trip. (?)
Also, I got some of my big grades back today. I had a big class management portfolio as my end of the year project, and I got a 100%. I had a big PowerPoint presentation final, and I got a 100%. And, I had a group project (back when I was sick sick and wanted to die) and got a 98%. So, this was a good semester, and that will look good when I transfer into the regular master's program.
Congratulations, Wendy.
Ticky Box
back later when I'm properly awake
Wow Wendy, they are truly impressive grades. And no, he wouldn't have invited you on a road trip if he didn't like you
Whoot for Russian bees, Fiends! And of course for mushrooms. I love fungi, especially mushrooms. But not because I'm seventeen. Really.
Wendy, good news on many fronts. *grin*
Q, I don't know... I'm a neat person and live with a slob. My life is very busy and it makes me insane to have crap all over the house. So I've become resigned to insanity.
I want to go morelling this weekend. It's been very cold so probably not much out there, but it did finally rain for a couple of days. I've only ever found morels by accident, not when I'm looking, but it's a good excuse to go play in the woods.
More bee madness! I am not surprised those people folded again. They never seemed the reliable type of suppliers anyway.
Got back from Paris yesterday and I had a great time (this bit of news for the benefit of fiends as you know already).
No internet at home (no phone either) so I might be a little more absent than usual.
Fun stuff. I used to try to go mushroom hunting in the woods behind my parents house, but I never found anything but the evil ones.
We have several nature preserves right around us that are great for wildflower pictures. Which reminds me that the bluebells will be up soon at the one place. So pretty!
It always makes me smile to think of bees in a box, being shipped around.
Congrats, Wendy! Great grades, and definitely a good sign with the guy.;)
My Bees are not Here either, and they are only Italians, which is much closer than Russia. They were promised last week and now all the flowers are done already. I'm wondering if we are dealing with the same company.....
Besides the Copperhead (Mushroom!) that I saw on my Hunt, I saw one other, which when I described to an expert last weekend was named as a 'Deathcap'. I think I should stick to poison ivy, I can conveniently find that in my own yard and it won't kill me.
ps. a little OCD involving housecleaning is NOT a bad thing. Only reason MY house looks good:)
I got "The poisoner's Handbook" in the mail if anyone is interested in tips...
I also got Lily-of-the-Valley flavoured tea in Paris, but only after the sales guy SWORE there wasn't an ounce of the actual plant in the tea. It smells and tastes quite lovely.
CAN you make Tea from LilyoftheValley? I've got those and they smell good enough to eat. Or drink, I guess.
No, the plant is extremely toxic - deadly, even - which is why I wanted to have a confirmation that it had not been used in the making of the tea before buying it.
Ok, let's get this straight: NO ONE eats, or drinks anything they find on their yard or woods until we are SURE it will not kill you!
Ok????
Hi Tracy! How was your show this weekend? I know it was a big one. Did they clean you out of everything? I so have to post pictures of the Fish Dishes you made me, and the Bees jars and tea mugs...
Mornign all. Ack. Going to be one of those email days I am thinking. I wish I could stay home and water my lawn.
Tho it is going to rain buckets tonight, so perhaps I should cancel that one.
But watering your lawn is the best way to make sure it rains a lot!
I am doing Revisions today. But then I will be done.
I have one sad, struggling Lily of the Valley. I haven't eaten any of it, but something else has. Sigh. But I'll be going to a big plant nursery today! Perhaps I'll buy it a friend to cheer it up. Or to get eaten with it by the Something, more likely.
umm, I've been eating the catnip from out back. It seemed to work for the kitties, but somehow I don't feel like rolling around on the grass then racing up a tree.
Show was Ok but they are WEIRD out there on the East Coast. No one appreciates my Fish. 12 hr drive (Dark, Rain, Mountains), nearly did me in. (Driving is like an airplane but you do it on the ground, and you're not allowed to sleep. Also unaffected by volcanoes, at least around here.)
Not SURE catnip works for us...
I love those fish!!! Can you post a link to them? I can take a pic too today and so a new blog too. Fiends would like your fish.
Jess, one lily? DO buy it a friend..
Can't water. Must email. Just had a great talk with a beekeeper who says Russians are sneaky and MEAN, and angry. Russian BEES mind you.
Uploading pictures of the show, while I have a connection (plus the one at work is MUCH quicker than the one we use at home. When it does exist).
Don't know if this will work, but I often thought you should have a Black Parrot Tulip in your garden. It's almost black (really deep dark purple) when it first opens and gets slightly lighter in colour later on, as in this photo of a tulip from my garden
(you plant them in autumn for flowering the next spring)
I like that! Black Parrot Tulip. Who knew???
Check out the Birdchick's blog www.birdchick.com for all the WILDflowers we saw!
Beauty! \o/ I have to get up into the woods here and see some things before they stop blooming. Haven't been up there since last summer. None of that stuff this far down the hill, apart from the woodland phloxes, which I planted on purpose.
You could grow woodland phloxes, Q. They like part to full sun, and wet. Takes 'em a few years to establish, but when they do, they go bananas.
Trillium are harder. I'm impressed at how quickly all those trillium that Birdchick planted came back!
So... why have Lily of the Valley Tea, if one can't consume Lily of the Valley? Is it the fragrance?
This morning I am paying bills and invoicing clients. Oh what fun...
And sitting on this exercise ball. Finding ways to "cheat" at sitting.
Strangely, I dreamt about this second mushroom picture, and in my dream, they were made of something brittle but edible, not poisonous after all; I think it was some sort of candy that spun out from the centre of the log somehow, growing into these mushroom shapes.
Congrats, Wendy! *high five*
Mushrooms are so beautifully bizarre looking.
Good job, Wendy!
How come I forget everything by the time I've finished reading the comments? :)
Oh yeah, bees. and fish, and flowers. House painting and purple rooms. Blue carpets.
I'm not getting old, really, I'm not. :)
Ticia, go ahead and forget the blue carpet. The blue carpet is ugly. Trust me.
I bought a bearded iris the color of a sunset (they tell me)! And a perennial dianthus! And a thing called a sea-pink. And something blue with dark greeny-puple leaves, and anoher thing with soft silvery leaves and white flowers. Both tiny, and neither of which I can recall the names of. Am off to stick them all in the ground before they dry out.
I just discovered this year that PHLOX comes in ORANGE. Bright beautiful ORANGE. I never liked it because it's all pink, white and purple (sorry Lorraine!). But yes, it's easy to grow and smells good. Don't know if you can eat it:)
Sigh. My sister likes Orange Flowers.
Other than that tho, she is really cool. You must love her, my Fiends.
She is also funnier, and more talented than I, kid you not.
I like orange flowers, too. Thanks for the tip on the flox.
Grass is hard to grow. I'm working on getting rid of all of mine and switching to native things that like my patch of land. My only requirement is that the final product "look" intentional, so my neighbors don't sigh when they see me.
Plus - I'm meeting someone new to try the yard to gardens thing (www.y2g.org). Essentially I say "I have space" and someone else says "And I want to grow stuff" and we all live happily ever after. Wish me luck!
I'm growing a couple of kinds of black tulips - put them in last fall - but they are being remarkably stubborn about opening.
I had four things to do this week. If I got them done, I could take Friday afternoon off. How many do you think I've finished? That's right - one.
One is nearly finished, one is half-finished, and the last is barely begun. I don't think I will get any extra playtime tomorrow even though the weather is supposed to be lovely.
Phiala, I've got a serious azalea envy now.
Aren't those lovely? They came with the house. That shot is my new desktop background.
Oh, goodness. If only I lived closer. We have iris, day lily (orange!), lily of the valley, violets, purple cone flowers, yellow loose-strife, perennial walking onions, chives, and horseradish that are overgrowing their beds and need to be thinned. I would love to donate.
Well, Mistress you are far ahead of me, you too, Ultra, wish you BOTH lived closer.
WIsh someone would come and fix my cat wheel. Hmmph. It's backing came off when Merry washed it, and even tho I glued it, it now seems too small a circle. And it goes WAY too fast.
Mim is crying and crying, she wants out so badly, we'll go leash walk soon...But she needs to run.
could you possibly slow thw poo wheel by putting a playing card or spare credit card type thing in the spokes? i'm thinking like we did as kids to make the noise. although then the noise my bother the bengals.
oh and i have serious plant envy. i am plant death. i can admire form afar, but when plants rely on me or fall under my possession, their days are numbered.
Cat Wheel? Do you hook it up to your appliances and have the kitties run them? How environmentally friendly!!!
I bought a house from a lady who LOVED pink flowers. It's taken me five years, but I've managed to kill most of them off and replace them with yellow roses, irises, dafodils, tulips and gladiolas. Echinacea comes in yellow! I have over a hundred sunflowers most years, in every color red, yellow, orange, and YES! Black! I can't get rid of the Rose of Sharons, as they are the Hedge, and those are ALL pink and purple. I tell people they belong to the neighbor.
I really want some of those tulips now PG - that pic is awesome!
Phiala, I think we have a Quiche induced webfail at your blog...I couldn't open it.
Huh, hit refresh and the blog opens...
Do your crying, erm, talking Bengals like birds? We (the cat and I) watched some serious nest building, courtesy of an Osprey live cam, this morning. The cat fell asleep after awhile. I laughed as one bird would bring a stick, and the other would try to put it on the ledge. It fell off most times. But the Ospreys have done quite a bit in two days, even during a spring snowstorm yesterday.
www.enmax.com/Energy/Res/Greenmax/Osprey+Camera/OspreyLiveCamera.html
Oops - the url faded away there, here's what I meant to post:
www.enmax.com/Energy/Res/Greenmax/
Osprey+Camera/OspreyLiveCamera.htm
I can send onion sets for the perennial onions when they're ready. Those can go through the mail. Depends on whether you want 2 foot tall scallions-on-steroids that "walk" across your garden.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2296/
They've been in my wife's family for over 120 years. We got our current lot from a cousin. I think they'd do OK up your way. They do OK here and we have extended subfreezing temperatures (though not as extended or as low as yours).
Someone suggested spray painting my lawn to make it green you could try that on the PINK, Tracy...
bengal energy, WISH!
Someone is coming tomorrow to help me with the Cat WHeel. In the meantime, I moved two of the cat trees out to the porches, ought to hold 'em for an hour, figureing them out.
(Currently I have8 cat trees. WHy?)
Going to storm, need to go be with the dogs, who don't like This Sort Of Thing.
8 cat trees?
Hello again! Just back from another sick day (from the bug that will not die).
Glad to hear the parcel has arrived Lorraine. And yes, I did go a bit beserk. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind. :)
Actually thinking about your parcel got me to thinking* - we've been talking about plants, but what about garden ornaments. Any interestingly fiendish garden decorations out there? I can only boast a bog-standard clothesline of the skeletonised umbrella variety. Not very spesh at all.
*It was the paua shell that was the link. Some people have been known to edge their gardens with a line of whole paua shells. Then there's the tyre-swans (usually painted white), giant butterflies attached to the sides of houses, windmills (generally restricted to Dutch families)....yep, we're all a bit mad in these parts.
If you feel like sending one my way, maybe it would keep Kitty from peeing on the floor. I think she was mad at me for getting the wrong scented cat litter. Poo on me for not knowing the difference between the red and blue.
Thanks for the kind thoughts from everyone. I finished my last class of this semester tonight. And I got another grade back from a big project. It was another 100%. Yay, I'm going to be a teacher!
And, I would love being surrounded by orange flowers. Maybe arrangements of bright orange, red, and magenta.
WOOOHOOO Wendy. Awesome.
Congrats sweetie.
This morning was the funeral of this gangland dude from Melbourne in the next suburb and he was buried in our local cemetery, a few kilometres from here...have noisy media helicopters buzzing over.
Woohoo, Wendy! Well done that woman! I'm so pleased for you.
Sally, we've had reports about that funeral over here as well. Quite the blingtastic coffin apparently.
I just remembered a dream I had last night. It's odd and it involves skulls, so I thought fiends might like it. Of course, you may run screaming from me. My imagination is not for those who are squeamish or have a weak constitution.
I love dreaming and I've had incredible dreams, both good and bad. Last night's was disturbing...
I was seeing through my eyes in the dream and I was reading a huge, old, illuminated manuscript/book. The book was sitting on the table before me and the pages were almost matted (like a picture). The mat/border was a solid tangle of small animal skulls, like marbles in a tray. As I turned the pages, I would reach down and pluck a tiny skull from the bunch, popping it in my mouth like a bonbon.
better than a real bonbon for your waistline Ticia!
Yes Ms T, the coffin was gold plated. I am bemused by a gangland murderer being buried in a gold plated coffin.
Great dream, Ticia!
Good morning!
I'm at work, fed, caffeinated, and have dealt with all of the piddly stuff while becoming nourished.
That means it is time to crank out these revisions and get the manuscript back to the editor. Right? Right! I am so close to done...
Then I have another manuscript to edit, but if I get it done then I can wind up April as close to caught up on work as I ever get.
Morning! Not so many thunderstorms after all, but the dogs were happy I was there. Not too many calls/things in the night.
And I have tea.
And someone who is going ot try and help me with my CatWHeel.
Cat Wheel CO also is looking into solutions, mine is a model they don't make anymore, from before they owned the company, but they still want ot help. AND have offered me a great discount on what they sell now, which is a far better model, whith a tension thing, so it will slow down.
Customer service WIN!
Yay! Though if you get a new one, I think we should still call it the Poowheel.
There's a big chipper-shredder truck thing across the street, munching on the remains of a big tree that the neighbors had taken down. The cats are lying very low. I don't think they believe the world is ending, but they seem pretty convinced that there's an angry and dangerous Something out there. And I suppose on a certain level, they're right.
ARRRRGGGGHHHHH. I just figured out that today is the deadline for a magazine I was going to submit to. I still have to revise the story. Stupid school. Looks like I'm going to be submitting in July.
On a high note, I found out that one of my favorite bands (MATH the Band) is going to be playing with MC Chris AND MC Lars (nerdcore performers) in Baton Rouge this June!!!! OMG!!!
\m/
Letting Magic out while I work from home. Down two plants, a candle holder and a lamp.
Might not have been my best idea ever.
New post is up! All about the Magic...
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