I'd given up on the Mason Bees this summer, but just noticed quite a few of the nest tubes are plugged with mud, which mean they contain larvae/cocoons. Yea! Guess they liked the deluxe condo after all.
The life cycle goes like this:
"Larvae feed on the pollen and nectar stored in the nest. After 10 days, the larvae spin a cocoon and pupate within the cell. Near the end of summer, the bee transforms to the adult stage called an imago but remains in the cocoon throughout the winter."
The bee experts advise you to remove the cocoons for storage over the winter. But how do you get them out of the tubes without damage? The box is in a high, dry, safe spot, so maybe I'll just let bees be bees, and see what happens in the spring.
Moving on to other resident critters, I've been watching a squirrel hang upside down and methodically eat sunflower seeds like corn on the cob. Our squirrels are so funny, always looking for fresh mischief. Life is good in this yard. We give the bunnies carrot peels, and they're starting to nibble on the windfall apples.
"Jeb," the famous West Seattle pony, lives in a backyard a few blocks from our house. Ponies can live a long time, and he is somewhat of a local legend. Sometimes I'll walk over and stand for a few minutes to take in his wonderful, sweet horse smell. (Horse lovers understand this.) So evocative of happy past barn days, it almost brings tears to my eyes.
Anyway, all we can do is stay busy and try to think positive about the future. Some days are definitely easier than others.
Speaking of busy, here's an afternoon project. I'm going to transform these babies into luscious plates of homemade chili rellanos. These are lovely New Mexico Hatch peppers, that only show up once a year in local grocery stores. Delicious but labor intensive, they must be charred on the grill first to remove the papery outside skin before you can make anything with them. Making real Mexican food from scratch is quite a project, but kills time on a long pandemic summer afternoon.
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