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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Air Traffic Control

First off I've got to come clean about something. All the long wools got their ears lowered the other day. Or maybe I should say they got their ears raised. I had the shearers lop off their dreadlocks, thinking they were getting pretty ratty and probably should start fresh every few years...

They look awful. Woolliam without his cool 'do??? Keebler without his lopsided curls??? Buddy actually being able to see where he's going??? Rebecca Boone with no place to stick a feather or two???

What was I thinking?!?

Sheep shearing regret. Bald is not beautiful. :-(

Luckily the bees were able to save the day so I didn't have to post pictures of the multi-hair tragedy.



They are all over the sunflowers out by the Frog Pond.



Bees of all shapes, sizes and varieties.



Something interesting - hopefully visible if you biggify - is that some of the bees seem to just coat their entire body with the pollen.



And some gather it neatly in their pollen baskets. Any thoughts?



The reason I had the camera out by the pond is I noticed another traffic issue last night when I was checking the two Frog Pond hives.



A large writing spider had (cleverly I'll admit) constructed her web directly in the bee's flight path coming in and out of one of the hives. She had 16 bees cocooned and is working on number 17 in this picture. The following comes from the Weaving Today newsletter in my inbox this morning.

Beweave It!

A fabulous spider-silk cloth on exhibit at Chicago Museum of Art shows one of the more unusual ways in which we associate spiders with weaving. But perhaps the most famous connection is the Greek myth of the gifted weaver Arachne. According to the myth, when Arachne boasted that her weaving was better than that of Athena, the goddess of weaving, Athena became angry and challenged Arachne to a weaving contest. Athena wove a cloth depicting good deeds of the gods, but Arachne wove about their foolishness. When Athena saw Arachne's tapestry she became enraged at the insulting images, but also because Arachne's weaving was better than Athena's.


Arachne and Athena


In her rage, Athena turned Arachne into a spider, doomed to spin and weave her whole life long. While the Greeks saw this as punishment, it may sound pretty good to those of us who struggle to find enough weaving time.


I struggle with spider webs. I hate walking through them in the dark coming in from the barn at night. There's the obvious creep out factor, but also the realization that I just destroyed hours worth of amazing work. I try to live and let live. What was I going to do about this bee catcher?



"Hhhheeeellllllpppp!"



"Me tooooooo!"

And down it came. I was gentle and tried to arrange it so all her stored work could be salvaged and I felt sorry for her...but you don't mess with the Too Busy Bees.

12 comments:

Deb W said...

Nobody ever perished from a bad haircut.....although they may have wanted to. All the sheep will be sprouting new locks before you know it! Say, October? In time for the 2nd annual "Hug a Sheep" day? Will there be one?

Alice said...

The only difference between a good haircut and a bad one is a few weeks. Right now I'll bet it will look like Graham was playing with scissors.

Love the sunflower and bee capture against the bright blue sky. Card/calendar worthy.
I'm glad you saved the bee from an early demise.
There are enough pests to sate the spider so that he wont go hungry.

janna e said...

No!! You must post bad haircut photos!!!

thecrazysheeplady said...

Yes, Hug a Sheep Day farm party will be October 29th, that last Saturday in October :-).

Terry and Linda said...

You are winning Renny over...what a cool life she now has! And thanks for saving the bees. The little spider will have to go some place else and work at it a little harder, I do believe.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

From what I've read, some bees in a hive specialize in pollen and some in nectar. Maybe the messy ones were really going after the nectar and picked up the pollen "by mistake?"

Gayle said...

You definitely have to share the bad haircut photos.

Sassafras and Winterberry said...

I have one of those spiders in my blackberry patch. Each day, I would actually try to throw an ant or something into its web...I know, garish! But then it would leave me alone to grab the berries around the web!

Mimi Foxmorton said...

Well, you know what they say. The difference betwixt a good hair cut and a bad hair cut? Three weeks.
;)

Ed said...

Poor guys, new do's will be forthcoming.. Great shots and a busy spider who knows where to get a good meal. I love seeing someone walk into a spider web from a distance, it looks like they are freaking out for no reason, totally hilarious..:-))

small farm girl said...

Kill the spiders. I know that spiders have their place and all, but I hate them. And, the shouldn't be messing with the bees. That's just wrong. lol

flowerweaver said...

Hopefully Ms. Spider will understand, especially since you saved her harvest. But a good deed for the bees! I'm not sure I'd recognize the crew without their dreadlocks.

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