maresh-buster-550pMy native bees are thriving…this morning I put out a shallow dish of sugar water and there are 10 – 12 scouts sipping the water from the little sticks of wood I put out in the dish to keep them from drowning as they seek their nectar. Sprinkles of rain came at 3 AM this morning so I went out to check on them …are they flying away.???…but they still stayed clustered together between the gentle rains, the warming sun, and potential dark clouds of thunderstorms.

My young golden lab, Buster, keeps wondering why I keep staring at that big, old cherry tree – “is there a squirrel up there?” but he can’t see the native hive nor appreciate it’s presence and all the attention I give the old wine barrel and the old hive. He thinks there should be a bone nearby for him. Nope! He just gets happy hiking through the vineyards digging gophers among the old vines and then his puppy/farm brain gets filled with the scents of rodents in the vineyard rows. He comes back laden with clods of red hills dirt…licks it off deliberately and then looks at me with his big brown eyes…”Now, where!” – Martha

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