Self Starters

 My fascination with insects really took hold when our young daughter decided to do entomology for 4-H. We lived in town and grandpa had sold the farm, so while her she wanted to show livestock of any size or breed was totally out of the question, she settled on entomology.  Her collection over the years finally earned reserve champion at the Colorado State Fair. She followed in the footsteps of my dad who raised butterflies and moths in his bedroom during the depression years. I'll write about him soon. Jen's father, known here as the Head Gardener, also collected insects for 4-H, and now her oldest daughter Ellie proudly asserts that she is the 4th generation family entomologist. 

I prefer not to collect specimens, but rather to photograph them. I am especially intrigued with bees, particularly bumble bees. While honey bees get all the attention because they are having difficulty surviving these days, they are not the only pollinators in our gardens. On a recent bug collection walk with the Jen and Ellie, I expressed my concerns over catching bees for the collection. Still, I believe in research and learning about even the smallest and seeming most insignificant life forms, but we didn't capture any bees that day.

Colorado has 90 different bee species, so the lofty goal of photographing every one of them would be beyond my capacity.  I concentrate on my garden and other gardens that I visit. Last week we traveled east to Haxtun, CO, a very small town on the northeastern plains where our long time friends live. 

While the HG helped my friend pull weeds in her rose garden, I photographed the bees going about their morning work in Sherry's stand of echinacea by the mailbox. Using my 300mm telephoto lens in the athletic mode, I was able to capture some work place drama.

While this bumble bee worked quietly alone, another bumbler had a very rude encounter with another bee.

Of course these photos happen quite by chance. In athletic mode, the lens stays focused and the camera takes continual sequential exposures  as long as the shutter button is held open. So I was taking a sequence of photos, hoping to get the bee in flight. Instead I captured another bee flying in for a landing.

Things didn't go well for him. Instead of making a smooth landing, he collided with the bumble bee. It would seem that even pollen gathering has its workplace hazards.

I saw more than one collision and began to wonder if those small bees are blind. If not blind, they are very clumsy or rather careless aviators. The bumble bee--much larger--didn't seem phased, for he continued working while the other bee gathered his composure and stumbled to his feet.

I never did get a bumble bee in flight, but caught another bee headed for a crash landing, too.

Back at home in my own garden, the orange tiger lilies transplanted last year are beginning to bloom. I've waited all summer for them. We had a much needed heavy rain the night before, so I was out in the garden early to photograph the water droplets on the lilies.

Later in the morning, I went out to the vegetable garden to photograph the newest sunflower, a large self planted girl with a big face and a wide smile. I took dozens of photos of her along with other garden plants and even some of wildlife that lives amongst the leaves. 

Ladybugs are always a garden favorite. They have their specific job: eating aphids. This year we seem to have a larger ladybug population. Using the 55mm standard lens on my DSLR camera, I can get within centimeters of the my tiny subjects then I like to edit the photo, cropping it as tightly as I can without losing focus on the image to get as much of a close-up as I can. This photo is of a wild sunflower, cropped and edited for color effect. 

Ladybugs wandering amongst the sunflower leaves offer very exciting photos because the tighter the shot and the zoom, the greater detail. I'm not sure which I find more intriguing: the hairs on the sunflower stocks or the large, wicked looking lady bug mandibles. 

While the HG planted 6 cabbages, we only have two mature. I think they are ready to pick, which means that I'll be making krautburgers in the near future.

Even cabbage offer interesting photography opportunities

Still wet from the rain, the cabbage with an interesting texture can be fun to explore once the photos have been downloaded. Like that black speck on the water droplet. It could be just a speck of dirt.

I began with a wide shot, then began zooming in to get more detail. As I did so, the black speck flew away, but not before I got its picture.

Cute little guy that I never would have seen had I not zoomed for a closer image of a rain droplet. 

Cabbages are not nearly as much fun as the sunflowers laden with ladybugs, though. Here's another tightly cropped photo with more detail.

Most of us don't like to be photographed from our back side, but the sunflowers don't mind.

Isn't Bug World grand! Look for the rain drops on the lady bug's back.

From the wild sunflowers to the newly planted hybrid roses, the Garden Spot has plenty of stories. The rose story continues with little drama. One of the transplanted roses is ready to bloom, but on a stalk set off from the main graft, so I have a feeling that is from the old rose, but because it is pink, it may be First Prize, a Weeks registered tea rose. We shall see. Still the roses are doing well; all are showing new growth. It's doubtful that any of them will bloom this season, but maybe depending on when the first cold weather ends the growing season.

This giant girl showed up one her own. She's probably a descendant of the agricultural sunflowers grown as a cash crop in the area, her seed carried in by a bird. I didn't get around to planting any other sunflowers  this spring because it was so cold, so I enjoy the self starters, the wild ones that always make me smile.

So these are my two favorite garden things: Pop begging me to open the gate so that he can go eat his breakfast and the sunflowers.

Meanwhile back in Haxten. While wheat grower Dave Anderson lives in town, if we want to see much of him during a short visit, a trip out the family wheat farm is a must. The dryland corn (not irrigated)  is a total loss. Not enough moisture for it to grow. The wheat crop yield will be low this year, too, for the same reason--no snow over the winter and no spring rain. The winter wheat is planted the late in the summer then harvested the following July. Andersons farm nearly 15,000 acres--just a small family farm. 

We leave the main highway, taking the country road. Sherry knows exactly where her husband and the crew are cutting the last of wheat.

With the wind generators on the not so distant horizon,  half a million $$$ worth of equipment brings in the load of wheat.

The HG rode along with the combine driver, learning about the technology that not only guides the giant combine, but maps the field as it goes and provides data on the crop.

From the combine, the wheat is off loaded into the grain cart where the weight for that load is calculated by onboard computers scales then it is transferred to the semi trailer that will haul it to the storage bins. 

Our Colorado farmers had a rough season with a cold, low moisture spring, increased production costs, availability of fertilizers, pesticides,  and machine replacement parts, insects, and more weather. 

Thanks for visiting. It's always a pleasure to be with you. I'll be joining Angie at Mosaic Monday where you will enjoy other wonderful stories with their beautiful mosaics. 

This week, my mosaic tells the story of the self starters at the Garden Spot where the little quotation "Bloom where planted" offers inspiration for those times when we don't land exactly where we intended--like the asparagus seed that was transported from the Garden Spot over to the pond. At first first I tried to pull it out, but it kept coming back--now that is perseverance. I hadn't identified it as asparagus. Now it gets a reprieve.  I'm curious as to what it will do next season.

                           

Join me, too, at Ann's Dollhouse Dreams where I indulge my inner child and chronicle my adventures in the land of miniatures.