Why I Want Bees and Butterflies in My Garden

I read recently that bees are very calm insects, not out to get people, but only sting when threatened.
I suppose, hysterically swinging arms feel threatening. Many tend to get a little excited when a bee comes summing, too close for comfort.

And why is that? A bee sting hurts. I have had my share. From a painful sting behind my ear as a little girl, stepping on bees - to the night spent as a 5 or 6 year old and I slept in my grandmother's loft, not knowing there was a large beehive there. That night I acquired more than what was good for a little munchkin.

I have studied at a university in the Beehive State, love listening to the musician Sting, and had The Sting as one of my favorite movies as a teenager.

So, why write about bees? Lately there has been much talk about the extinction effect of bees.

Scientist are alarmed as bumblebee numbers plunge worldwide:

Dire implications for food production: “In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being “stuck with grains and water,” said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA’s bee and pollination program. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” Hackett said. -Fox News

Whole colonies of bees and bumblebees collaps and scientists have not been able to figure out why. The import of bumblebees to the US in the 1990 caused two species died out, another is about to. In South America the import of bumblebees to greenhouses have caused problems as the insects escape and cause imbalance and competition as they mate with other local bumblebee species. Bees can also suffer serious effects from toxic chemicals in their environments. Pesticides actually kill them.

We are dependant on these little creatures for pollenation. They also make excellent honey, a yummy treat that can be used in so many ways and is wonderful to have in one's food storage supply.
Without honey bees, 80% of the plants will disappear. We need certain plants so that butterflies won't extinct. We need fruits and vegetables not to diminish.

What can we do? I am not the kind that wave my arms around when bumblebees approach. I plant herbs that I know they love. My herbal patch is enchanted come late summer with bumblebees and butterflies. A beautiful sight and I laugh when I think of how noisy they are, never able to sneak up on anyone. As soon as they move around, they buzz energetically.

Which herbs and plants should we have in our garden or in planters on the terrasse to attract bees and butterflies? What can we do to help out? There are two things they look for in our garden, nectar and pollen. Nectar is the bees sugar and energy diet, pollen provides them with protein and fats.

Here are some tips from About.Com Gardening:

1. Don’t use pesticides. Most pesticides are not selective. You are killing off the beneficial bugs along with the pests. If you must use a pesticide, start with the least toxic one and follow the label instructions to the letter.
2. Use local native plants. Research suggests native plants are four times more attractive to native bees than exotic flowers. They are also usually well adapted to your growing conditions and can thrive with minimum attention. In gardens, heirloom varieties of herbs and perennials can also provide good foraging.
3. Chose several colors of flowers. Bees have good color vision to help them find flowers and the nectar and pollen they offer. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.
4. Plant flowers in clumps. Flowers clustered into clumps of one species will attract more pollinators than individual plants scattered through the habitat patch. Where space allows, make the clumps four feet or more in diameter.
5. Include flowers of different shapes. There are four thousand different species of bees in North America, and they are all different sizes, have different tongue lengths, and will feed on different shaped flowers. Consequently, providing a range of flower shapes means more bees can benefit.
6. Have a diversity of plants flowering all season. Most bee species are generalists, feeding on a range of plants through their life cycle. By having several plant species flowering at once, and a sequence of plants flowering through spring, summer, and fall, you can support a range of bee species that fly at different times of the season.
7. Plant where bees will visit. Bees favor sunny spots over shade and need some shelter from strong winds.

Save the honey bees is another site with good advice:

What you can do

1. Check your closets for poison against ants and other crawling insects. These products can also contain the pesticides described above. Ant killers from Maxforce, Pokon, Admire, HGX and GAUCHO may contain the harmful pesticides. 
2. Use eco friendly alternatives. For example; lavender expels lice. Plant mint between the cabbage and the caterpillars will not eat the leaves. 
3. Bees love plants and herbs like showy stonecrop, catmint, New York asters, bee balm and many more. Help them strengthen and feed themselves and the colony by planting those plants in your garden or at your balcony. 
4. Subscribe to our newsletter on the right site of this page. We will inform you on a regular basis about the honeybee friendly alternatives and what you can do to protect the honey bees. 

The Buzz about Bees site suggest the following herbs:

Borage, Catmint, Chives, Comfrey, Hyssop, Lavender, Sage, Thyme Marjoram/Origanum, Mints, Lemon Balm, Fennel, Angelica, Wild Bergamot, Woundworts, Betony, Myrtle, and Rosemary.

Lemon Balm is also used as an insect repellant. Rub some of the leaves on your hands to prevent bee stings.

In the past, beekeepers would rub a handful of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) inside the hive after hiving a new swarm, in order to help the swarm settle and to encourage them not to leave the hive. Rubbing hands with the leaves is also claimed to help prevent bee stings!

I have had many of these herbs in my garden and therefore enjoy both butterflies and bees close by. I have notoce that they especially love the peppermint, spearmint and lemon balm.

A who does not pick up a dead bee to check it out? Where is that stinger? What does it actually look like? I am as curious as the next person and like to learn.

A sleeping bee would be nice, too. Barbra Streisand sings about A sleepin' bee. A love song. But if you appreciate Miss Streisand's wonderful voice and ability to interpret music into stories, you should click on the link listen to it.

Today's art is a bouquet of flowers from my mother's garden and a photo from my herbal patch at the Duck and Cherry. The three photos of bees and butterflies sitting on the Echinacea purpurea, were taken in Finland on a business trip learning about that wonderful medicinal flower.

Sources:

Nytt Norge - Bier og sommerfugler: Dør insektene dør vi

Norske humler og andre bier trues - Aftenbladet.no

Scientists alarmed as bumblebee numbers plunge worldwide

Bees and toxic chemicals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Why are the bees disappearing - Pan-Europe.info‎

http://gardening.about.com/od/attractingwildlife/a/Bee_Plants.htm

Herb Planting For Bees - Buzz About Bees

Mimmi, may I borrow your clothes?

Sienna, a two and a half year old princess, asked me yesterday, "Mimmi, may I borrow your clothes?"
How many little angels that young ask their grandmother a question like that?

The clothing item she likes to choose, is a white, lacy top, very feminine and girlie, just like her.
So we go and fetch the blouse in my closet and put it on her little frame. To her, it appears to be a pretty dress, just the right length, but since it is too wide, we pull the material together in the back and fasten it with a safety pin or a belt.

She feels beautiful. And she is. Very lovely and sweet. And I don't care if by the end of the day, the lacy blouse will have raspberry jam or mashed potatoes down the front. Sienna is important, the blouse is not.

So I will use one of her energetic and positive sayings, "It's perfect!"
Children are a blessing. And they are perfect.

The Os of Life and Death

And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death.
Charles Dickens

This saying means everything after the Pentecost weekend we have experienced in our family.
Saturday evening, watching TV with my beloved Arnfinn, he suffered what the doctors debated was a heart attack or not. He was rushed to the hospital in Oslo in an ambulance and went through extensive testing and treatment during the night.

Now he is home again. He is alive! And we are happy to have more time together.

Life is fragile. An experience like that is an eye opener for many, especially the younger members of our family, but also the older, as it makes you want to make the best out of the days we have together here on the earth.

To top it off, I went to the funeral of a good friend yesterday. Her children and friends praised her and reminisced on the many unforgettable, funny and unselfish acts of kindness and love this woman had shown throughout her life.

The variety of days in life, like Dickens mentions in the saying above, is important. There are moment when sadness, despair or pain may overcome us in a way, that we wish for a better life on the other side of the veil. Then again, the next morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing - and here at the Duck and Cherry, I can add, the sheep are bleating - and we are grateful to be alive and enjoy another beautiful day under a Heavenly Father's watchful care.

So, on a personal note, I have a husband who is a pillar in my life. He encourages me to be better, and believes in me when I don't. He makes me laugh - a lot - and he strives every day to be a better man.

Below are a few words of wisdom about life.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”― Dr. Seuss

“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth.”― William W. Purkey

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”― Oscar Wilde

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”― Dr. Seuss

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”― Albert Einstein

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”― Lewis Carroll

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”― George Bernard Shaw

“Where there is love there is life.”― Mahatma Gandhi

Photo today, Arnfinn as "Bestefar" and Aksel, one of our grandsons, at the cabin.



June 9, 1865: Charles Dickens was in a train derailment in England, 149 years ago today. He climbed out a window and saved the manuscript of Our Mutual Friend, but didn't leave the scene until he'd brought the victims water from a nearby river, which he ferried in his top hat. 

Why All The Questions?

When Linnea was four years old, she asked questions all day long. Just like many children, she wanted to know why, who, where, when, what over and over again. A new question would roll off her tongue almost before you had registered the previous one.

I taped her one time while she was watching Disney's Dumbo (or Dumbol as she called it, living in Austria where many words seem to end with the letter L). I remember having to muster up all my patience at the time, but it was adorable how inquisitive she was.

My husband is also a man of many questions. As a lawyer he is schooled in questioning. He can always see things from many angles unknown to me and asks zillions of questions about things I have never thought about. Still I have reminded him a few times that we are not in a courtroom.

On the other hand, he comes from Trondheim and claims that people from that region tend to answer a question with another question.

I believe in learning every day and that being curious and interested is healthy and wise. I want to probe and find out, strive forward and learn from life. It does not mean to be fans of Medieval Inquisition, but questions about life, religion, and God are vital for our eternal welfare. And when I find out what I believe to be best and true, I need to trust in that decision.

The Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci was always learning. I read his personal note book many years ago and recognized how important he believed learning from personal experience was.

Still - some things are better left untried. There are pitfalls in life we don't have to jump into.

Today's art is an oil painting I did in 1982 of a lamb and lion. I believe it is possible that one day the lamb will lie down with the lion. When that day comes, my big wish is to cuddle with huge bears.

My Husband Will Not Become A Curling Champion

Today Arnfinn announced that he will definitely not begin to play curling.
This was after we had been scrubbing the terrace for quite a long time and his arms were getting tired.

He had sprayed the cleanser on the wooden boards, let it set for 15 minutes, then vigorously scrubbed with a long-handled broom. He did a great job, used a lot of muscles and pretty much got his work-out done for the day.

I had the good part this year. I got to hose off the dirt and keep the cleanser moist on the timber decking. I usually do it all by myself and was happy to share the load.

I love his blunt statements. He says the funniest things at times just out of the blue. He twists sentences and words around and they become strange, interesting and humorous outbursts.

My contribution to funny sayings today I have borrowed from S.Johns.
"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

I sold these two paintings last week. They made me happy painting them. Now I hope someone else will enjoy their funny faces.

Believe in Fairies?

Do you believe in fairies?...If you believe, clap your hands!

J.M. Barrie


Boys who wouldn't grow up occupied the imagination of British writer J.M. Barrie (born May 9, 1860), making appearances in his work both before and after his iconic play, Peter Pan. 





The story about the Cottingley Fairies is fascinating. Is it possible that two young cousins, aged 10 and 15, actually saw and played with real fairies? The year was 1917 and Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths spent the summer posing and photographing each other and the fairies of the woodland near Bradford in England.  
Funny how the photographs caught attention from prominent people. A leading member of the theosophical society in Bradford, a broadcaster and historian, a physical researcher, a novelist, a clairvoyant. These men were all involved in what was called "a visible evidence of psychic phenomena".

One of the most eager supporters of the claim that the photographs portrayed real fairies, was author and spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, well-known as the creator of  the Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. His article in the December 1920 issue of the Strand, included two of the five fairy photographs by the girls and an admonition to the readers to believe. It was Conan Doyle's hope, that if he could get people to believe in fairies, they would also accept other exceptional marvels.

The girls proclaimed ownership to real visitations with fairies. They were interviewed many times over the years, but always stuck to their story. In 1976 they agreed that "a rational person doesn't see fairies". Still, they claimed the photographs to be the real thing. It was not until 1983, that they admitted that four of the photographs had been faked (they disagreed on the fifth one), but even then, maintained that they really had seen the fairies.

It was difficult for two young girls to raise their voice and set things right, after a famous and brilliant man like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had believed their hoax. It took them 66 years to give in and were under a lot of pressure from journalists, both in newspapers and television. They did not think of fooling anyone, and were surprised that so many believed their photographic fun to be true.

Francis died in 1986, Elsie two years later. In 1998 a London auction sold prints of their photographs and other things, including a first edition of the Coming of the Fairies, a book by Conan Doyle for £21 620.

***

Photograph: Frances Griffiths with Fairies. Taken in 1917, first published in 1920 in the Strand Magazine.
Three water colors of some of my fairies.

Storms add Color to my Sunset Sky

I have been asked why I paint stormy weather.

How can a person with a positive attitude and usually a smile on her face, paint dark skies, clouds filled with water, thunderstorms, and nature that you can practically hear the wind blowing?

Simply put, I think weather is a beautiful thing. I love the colors of approaching storms. I enjoy walking the dog when rain kisses my face and wind pulls on my warm coat. I enjoy the challenge of painting the variety of nature.

I came across this saying today and wanted to share it with my readers,

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore


Influential Bengali poet and thinker Rabindranath Tagore (born May 6, 1861) was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

This saying is so true about life.

Today's water color is called "Late Spring".