Green Day

Sweet Summers Day, Q. Casstti, 2010, mixed mediaGoodness, it's beautiful here. The grass defines green, and the early morning peachy gold light made me catch my breath. School is back in session but time is short between now and the end of the school year. There is the Spring Fling dance, the play, the prom, endless parties and trips for our girl graduate. There are track meets (around 5 in the next week or so), and cast parties, exams and reevaluation for next year. 

We have two added guests next week, so I am roasting bones for stock and a "big pot of sauce" will be brewed up tonight in anticipation of more eaters around here. I am hoping to get back into the garden this afternoon after work or early tomorrow to rake a bit more, and get those new hellebore into the ground. Maybe mulch this weekend. And of course, the trees are coming too!

I had the opportunity to download a big pdf file of the L.L. Langstroth book, Hive and the Honeybee from this remarkable resource at Cornell, The Hive and the Honeybee Collection, a selection from The Everett F. Phillips' Beekeeping Collection  at the Mann Library. "Look and ye shall find"....and in my case, abundantly. The Langstroth book is a classic which I was worrying about how to get a copy to peruse --and now I have it. The Mann has a beta test to provide the file for a Kindle (!)..but I couldn't make it go. The engravings are inspiring...and the copy the same. More on bees from reading this tome. The ladies, as you can see, got painted in (via photoshop) and are  getting ready to dive into their matching skeps (like the The Cholmondeley Ladies  circa 1600-10, Tate Britiain). I like the big bees that say Apiary-- and how they would never, ever fit in the skeps.

And now I dive into my world of words and pictures to see what I can do today.