10/4/10 A picture is worth 1000 words...

Well then three pictures should be worth 3000 words.  Three thousand words is an awful lot, so I fully intend to use pictures to take up some space; plus I don't know how many of you would read a post that was 3000 words long, I'm pretty sure that I would lose interest.

I was hoping that this time of the year would come later than it has, but sadly it appears to have arrived.  Around this time every year, in the temperate climates, apis mellifera (European honey bees-I have always liked them) begin to die off.  Well the drones do at least.  The only significant role drones play in the hive is to fertilize the queen.  They don't forage for food, they don't build the hive, and they don't care for the young.  They do (or at least their death does) prognosticate the advent of the colder weather; the time of year that bees need to conserve energy and prepare for winter.  That time of year is here.  I found a dead drone on the back porch today.

Winter means pumpkins are done for the year.  But its not winter yet.  I know that, and you know that, but I am not sure that the pumpkins know that.  It seems as though the girl bud is a total loss (it looks kinda like it has been deep fried-it makes me think, I bet deep fried pumpkin buds with salt would probably be pretty good), and it doesn't appear that there are more on the way.

I take heart in that the pumpkins are still growing (a bit), but they look less and less happy each day.  They are going downhill like the bud did.  The weather over the past two days even took its toll on the flamingos.  Ninety-one days down...nine more till fruit!  (the package says so...or now I am just delusional).