cody bear’s friends

yesterday actually turned out pretty bad, despite my attempts to cheer myself by listing all the happy things.

there was the ruining of a new shirt, a crappy morning at work, a funeral, and the ongoing saga of the creepy neighbor with the cops basically not caring at all.

BUT, despite all that crap, there were some nice things:

a beautiful dog to keep me busy and make me smile:

a great friend who spent much of the night with me problem solving and ultimately taking me to a mexican restaurant.

and the bees, curled up for a night’s snooze in their little pollen beds.

and my blog friends, visiting my site and making sweet comments about my loki post.

and my sister, for talking me through everything so i came out feeling like i’m not crazy.  no easy job.

i’m wary about how today and tomorrow will go.  there’s alot to do, and i just don’t know if my sinuses are up for the challenge!

my friend a told me that in the evening i could look in the flowers and see a bee settling down for a night’s sleep. i didn’t believe her, but she said yes, i could get up early and watch as the blossoms opened again, and there would be bees sleeping in there. “suuuuure” i said….”have another beeeeer” i thought.

i was taking pictures of blossoms tonight, and i was up close to one when all of a sudden, the anther started jiggling!

the honey bee was in there, getting comfy. he was crawling around deep inside the flower, finding just the right positioning before the petals enveloped him for the night.

i went from blossom to blossom, finding more sleepy bees. i don’t know what time they get up, what time the flowers open. i don’t know if i will remember to even look and to say “good morning honey bee.” (honey bee was one of loki’s dozens of nick-names!)

but the first gift was having a friend that told me about this crazy behavior. the next gift was being there with my camera when the bees hunkered down for the night.

i love my bees.

a couple weeks ago i mentioned i was becoming obsessed with getting the perfect bee shot.  after seeing what my friend a’s “macro” can do, i’ve resigned myself to honey bee mediocrity and will return to focusing my lens and my efforts on….dogs.

but, i did get some pretty good shots, just not as amazing as hers.

she took this one:

it looks like he’s wearing leg weights….but its pollen.  quads be damned.

here’s my shot:

funny thing, our pix got better AFTER we each had a couple pints of beer.  i wouldn’t recommend getting schnackered and then going out to harass some africanized honey bees, but i felt safe with her.  she know’s her bees.  in fact, she appears to be getting in the minds of the bees.  she is at ONE with the bees.  can even identify them by the buzz they make.

oh, the bees were buzzing, as were we….

such a great weekend, with the cardinal, the bees, the bobcats.  wish i didn’t have this cold, but other than that….life is good.

the pictures are better at part two, but i have to respect chronology…

continuing on my fantastic weekend, my friend a. came over and she has many fantastic qualities:

1. super cool entomologist who knows the buggins!

2. a pal that can drink the beers and talk the girl talk.

3. knows how to give the good belly rubs for my cody bear.

4. exxxxcellllent photographer, it just so happens.

but, here are my shots (which, as lame as they are, would not have been taken without her!)

looks like some dirt, huh?

here it is close up!!

it is a bee….emerging from an underground nest. turns out i have hundreds of bees living beneath my yard!

they’re fast, so that was an illustration….

more bees (better bees) later!

i don’t know why i’ve become so obsessed with getting a good bee shot!  all i know is…i felt alot safer shooting bees than i did with those crazy butterflies yesterday!

here’s a bee…

he’s been very industrious all morning, totally ignoring the crazy dog running around below.

and here’s a preening dove.  i took this picture while waiting for the bee…

he’s a cute bird, i guess.  he’s not flying at my lens like that crazy blue morph butterfly.

i guess i should let that go.  time to let the healing begin….

wow…i thought it was hard to get DOGS to hold a pose.  try bees!  damn, those guys will NOT hold still!

will someone (anna & the pack) pleeeaaaase tell me if these guys are dangerous!?  i don’t think they are.

oh well, ….i tried….

more from yesterday’s photo trip:

apricot blossoms! the bees were all over those flowers. i was standing under the trees and they would fly in and out of the frame constantly. the buzzing was more comforting than scary. though i will admit: if cody bear had been there, i would have been nervous he might get stung. but the bees ignored me and the blossoms were so pretty!

with hovering bee…

outlandish photo effect applied to otherworldy arch site.

disclaimer(requested by d): this is NOT the actual color of the petroglyphs. while some refer to the folks who left these darling prints as “Anasazi”, d wants me to mention that it is politically correct to call them “ancestral Puebloans”, but, that just does not roll off the tongue of today’s travel novice.

here is a random flower, photographed in may on the same utah hike. again, d wants me to mention that this is NOT the actual color. he wants me to point out that i was playing around with my photo editor program, which is true.

seeing the world through chartreuse colored lenses:

a side note: i like the new color scheme, and fancy that this is what the flower would look like to a bumble bee or a butterfly. or…..a zygodactyl alien with one eye. heh heh, just kidding d. just trying to find a reason to mention fox mulder in a blog.