Well, lookie there...

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.

Wordless Wednesday

Montana ranch tackroom

Summer 2020

Photo by N.G.

Count your blessings

This is a "visitation tent," outisde the entrance of an assisted-living, memory-care facility in West Seattle.  I was there yesterday with a friend from The Ukes to visit a special 94-year old lady.

She is a big ukulele fan and never missed our Monday afternoon sing-along at the Senior Center. After lunch with her friends in the dining room, we always played her favorite song, "Over the Rainbow."

Sadly, the Senior Center, once such a busy and vibrant part of the community, has been closed now for months.

The tent has a full plastic divider down the middle, and the residents enter on the left side. The chairs you see are for the visitors. There is also a plastic screen (that vertical black line) that protects residents as they move from the entrance to the tent. Masks are worn, and of course there's no physical contact.

This might seem restrictive, but it's actually a big improvement.  Families and friends can visit face-to-face. Well, at least while the weather is still nice.

Up until a few weeks ago, residents were confined to their rooms 24/7 and meals left at the door. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. Kudos to the facility for keeping them safe, but what a price to pay for folks in frail mental and physical health. Not to mention, their families.

We are all so tired of this, but when you miss the things you can't do, think about those with no freedom at all. And all the others who have lost their lives. And the families crushed.

The cruelty of this pandemic just takes your breath away. And so much of the suffering is out-of-sight, in hospitals and nursing homes. Perhaps that's part of the problem, as people go about their daily lives acting as if nothing was wrong. On my way to the nursing home, I drove along Alki Beach and it looked like any summer afternoon on Coney Island.

Anyway, we brought our ukuleles along and played a few songs in the tent, including her favorite. After all this ordeal, she was still smiling, and didn't seem to notice we were pretty rusty. I enjoyed it too, the first time I've played with another person in 6 months. Without friends, the ukulele is a sad instrument.

Our bright summer star

Happy birthday, Nova! I hope everyone has a wonderful time this week, back-packing in the North Cascade mountains.

Here's a little poem I wrote 11 years ago, right after you were born. You and Maya have brought a special magic to our lives.

For Nova

That morning you arrived,
You were our bright summer star.
And I drove East to greet you,
Body, Mind, Spirit--
With a prayer for every mile.

Time passed. Road and silence.
Mountains, rocks, fields,
The occasional gift of horses grazing.
And finally, clear desert light
Above the ancient river.

Then your Mother's call, at last!
Wonder and tears
Turning a roadside nowhere into Somewhere.
Oh, you thrilled us
With your big entrance: Here I Am.

So, an old story but still a fresh miracle.
And I arrived at a new place, too.
A little hand to hold,
Precious life to cherish,
The circle complete.

When life gives you peaches

Nothing says summer like fresh peach pie. We both had a big slice for dessert with vanilla ice cream. Those sweet local peaches made a delicious, once-a-year pie.

So, Friday again? Another week gone, so much like the one before, and the one before that.

Last night we were reminiscing about last August, a month almost too busy with trips and activities. John said it feels like that "just happened," and now another year is gone. To me, last August seems like a lifetime ago. Where we ever so carefree? The normal passing of time has gone very strange.

How about a smile to end the week? Yes, that is a real chicken harness.

Nova and Maya taking "Hey Hey" for a walk in the seed garden yesterday.
Have a good weekend.

My stash of gold

Who would have guessed such taken-for-granted household products would become almost impossible to find? 

The Lysol bathroom cleaner was a surprise score at Rite-aid. No one has Clorox wipes anymore, but I was shocked to see actual Purell brand at Safeway this week. Some of those off-market hand sanitizers smell disgusting. (I'll be glad when the tequila distillers go back to making booze.) Then I ordered the plain old Softsoft from Amazon Prime-- and it was back-ordered 3 weeks. 

Have people have discovered cleanliness for the first time?

That's a prettier sight. Some local, ripe peaches to make a pie later today.  A bit of welcome rain in the forecast this morning, we've had no measurable moisture in Seattle for over 2 weeks. The only other excitement today is an early morning dentist appointment. The summer of fun grinds on.