I’ve been out in the yard the past couple of days restoring order in winter’s wake. I’ve pruned, weeded, cut, sawed, planted and strewn straw…and now, I am yellow. Yellow you say? Yes, yellow. There is an erie haze in the air. At first you think there is a fire somewhere and the smoke is laying claim to the air but then you look at the cars, the houses, the road….everything is yellow.
It seems to have happened overnight. My son can hardly function due to his horrendous allergies. He’s off to get a shot. I am lucky. I can tolerate the pollen. That’s not to say I’m a fan. There is much to wash down once the yellow stuff finally covers everything in sight. The garage, the cars, the deck, the house, the pets, not to mention dusting inside the house as a light yellow layer covers floor and furniture. The poor cats went out briefly today and my precious Percy, who is a beautiful champagne color came back in with a yellow head. The warning: DO NOT OPEN THE WINDOWS!
A friend of mine recently went out to eat, leaving her car with the valet. When it came time to depart, the valet asked for the make of the car. She told him. He then asked for the color. She responded “yellow”. The valet, surprised, remarks that he didn’t know that particular car manufacturer made yellow cars. Her reply was that they don’t, but aren’t all cars yellow this week?
So perhaps you’re getting the picture. Here in Georgia, as I’ve told you, we can go from the 40’s and 50’s last week to the 70’s and 80’s this week. Currently it is 82 degrees. Which has me nervous. There is a major cold front making its way through the country as I type, dumping Spring snows in some places–which means we are on a tornado alert for tomorrow evening. But that means rain. Blessed rain. Wait?! wasn’t she complaining and lamenting about all of the blasted rain just a few weeks ago?! Yes, but you must understand, here in the south we need it now to wash away the yellow. Ode to fickled Southerners and ode to the Spring.
So while I was out pruning a few more bushes this afternoon, I thought I’d grab my camera just in case I saw anything “fun”. Now I don’t have a fancy smancy camera—just a little digital Sony. It shoots decent pictures but simply won’t zoom in on things as I would like. But since I am just a girl with a little digital camera and not a hardcore photographer, I suppose it will do.
Working my way to the back yard, in order to grab a rake, I notice the bumblebees having a hay day with all of the blooming flowers. I grab the camera and proceed to stand in the 82 degree sun attempting to catch them in action. Do you know how patient one must be in order to photograph a busy bee?? These particular bees are a combination of the typical bumblebee as well as the annoying carpenter bee– or bore bee as they are known around our world, as like to bore into anything wooden, doing a number on decks and the eves of houses.
They are great pollinators however—their fat fuzzy legs are great for grabbing up all the various pollens only to be redistributed as they flit from blossom to blossom. So I can’t complain about them too much right now as they have important work to do, that is before they start eating my house. I found this last one buzzing about in the Witch’s broom—a delightfully fragrant shrub when in bloom. Not the greatest of names, but its fragrance makes up for that.
Here is to pollen, bees, and blossoms—
cookiecrumbstoliveby 