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damselflies and giant bees

Category: bethie's world | Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:49 pm

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I chased this damselfly for two days to get his picture. He just kept eluding me.He has a beautiful metallic tail that looks blue or green according to the light. He reminds me of the aluminum tumblers my grandmother had. He is an ebony jewelwing. This morning my hubby and I had went our seperate ways. Him to cut some glass at the shop and me to work on some other glass at the dining room table. That's a room with a great view and good music too. I prefer it to the dingy dark shop. My Rick came tapping on the door for me and we went down to the little creek that runs next to our yard. There was 6 beautiful ebony jewelwings flitting in and out of the sun streaks. Some were femalesand while not as colorful as the males, when they started slowly folding their wings in and out they looked like beautiful black lace gloves. They flitted and mated in the streaky sunpots and then the females landed in the mud next to some scrubby plants and began to lay eggs! Turns out they lay eggs into the plant stems. They just flitted and courted and sparked and the sun beat down and the quiet tranquility of the day was mesmerizing. Then we decided we better get back to business. As I walked back to the house I heard my husband say, "man that was great". And it surely was.
My vitex trees are in full bloom and are just covered with bees We got right under it and enjoyed the pure Beeliciousness of it all. The buzz was right in our ears and flowers were dropping from all the activity. I noticed several of a bee I did not recognize and took his picture. I sent his pic to my favorite bug site-what's that bug.com and they didn't know. They consulted Their expert and he said they are Giant Resin Bees. They just got to America in 1994 from Asia they believe via ship. They are tracking this bee as it spreads. It lives in the holes carpenter bees make but does not make those detrimental holes itself. It seemed a very gentle bee and payed me no mind at all. All in all, a great day in the natural world here.

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bethie in a nutshell

Category: bethie's world | Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:49 pm

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Welcome to bethie's world. A world of art and nature. I grow the food plants for butterfly larva and in the hot months have hundreds of butterflies daily. I grow a zillion flowers and never have to put up a hummingbird feeder. My husband and I work on stained glass in our spare time, sandblast art,woodworking,hyper-tufa, and metalwork to name a few. I don't think I've ever made anything that he hasn't had a hand in at some point and vice versa. I work on mosaics a lot. This winter when we had the time we did our bathroom vanity in mosaic. It was nothing but work but of course NOW it was all worth it.We have been happily together since I was 19 and somehow managed to grow (and Growup) together and not apart. We love hiking and nature and canoeing. For years we rehabiltated baby birds of prey. We are avid birdwatchers and have made our yard a haven for wildlife. That has its downside as every creature in creation has tried to take up space on our little paradise. From hawks snatching birds off our feeders to weasels taking up in our shop to giant snakes laying on our windowsills we have had an interesting ride. We moved here to rural West Tennessee 20 years ago from the big city of Norfolk, Va. and we have never looked back. The laid back country lifestyle suits us perfectly.
Well enough for now. I hear a bunch of weeds calling my name.

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