Busy as Bees

We have been busy as bees in the past twenty-four hours -- and so have the bees on the redbud tree.

Swarms of bees buzzed all day from branch to branch of the redbud, and overhead the hawks flew even higher than the bees. Some of the bees were unusually small and some were medium sized and some were giant bumble bees.

It's hard to see all the bees when you are trying to take everything in, but if you focus on a single bee you can see it more clearly, precariously perched on a delicate blossom and going at it with gusto.

In the orchard, the mystery tree is blooming.

I posted a video of it on Youtube, saying how I wondered what it was.

I also posted pictures of some of the blossoms on Facebook.

My friend Martyn, who lives in Greece, told me that his wife thought it might be a blackthorn or sloe or, in Latin, prunus spinosa. I do think that is more or less right, as it is some kind of plum-like tree. I once saw a single fruit on it, many years ago. I thought it was a small plum, but it did not taste much like one. I haven't actually noticed any spines or thorns on the tree, but everything else seems to fit.

Meanwhile, these little tiny flowers by the house have really opened up.

I planted them many years ago, but have not given them any care since. They come in two colors.

I think they might be related to impatiens, but I am not sure. As I was admiring these flowers, the gardener came by with my new trees.

He planted four of them, but he did not have the saw he needed to remove the dead apple tree, so one will have to wait.

This is the information on one of my new peach trees.

You can see there already are some tiny peaches on it, though I doubt they will amount to much this year.

The other peach tree is called a Harvester peach.

My new apple trees are Gala apples and Autumn Beauty. They are not native to Missouri, but guess what? Apparently no apple tree is native to Missouri.

They are all exotic.

Blossoms n the Autumn beauty apple tree

One of the new apple trees already has open blossoms. The other is much smaller.

I only meant to replace the missing fruit trees this year, not to expand the orchard. But who knows, if this succeeds, I could add five new trees every year for the next ten years and have an orchard that might actually fill Bow's needs. Wouldn't that be nice?

The question is: how much labor would be involved to care for the trees and pick the fruit? Does it really require ten ordinary men working full time to do the work of a single chimpanzee? And if it does, might it not be easier to let the chimp pick his own fruit?

Maybe ten years from now, there will be a force field capable of keeping Bow within the borders of our property. In that case, we would have no need for metal bars or grids,

A bee on the pear blossoms from yesterday

In any event, there is no fear of not having enough pollinators for our orchard. The bees are more than willing to do their share of the work.

From Dawn till Dusk

Bow and I have a fairly peaceful life here, from dawn till dusk. The sun rises behind out woods, and we get up and have breakfast in the inner pen. And then, after all the dishes are cleared and our morning email has been checked, Bow asks to go outside.

Bow is a very quiet fellow most of the time, but he does have to get a certain things off his chest before he can become calm again and enjoy the quiet contemplation of nature.

Most of the time Bow is happy and satisfied and calm and satisfied.

We have lunch at noon.

Bow eats heartily.

After I clear the lunch dishes, Bow allows me to go for a walk. In fact, if I don't show signs that I am going, he kind of pushes me gently toward the door.

Yesterday afternoon on my walk, I spotted a butterfly in the second cherry tree.

My friend Kathy identified it as a Western Tiger Swallowtail.

Kathy is planning to come see us soon, but I decided to give everyone else a tour of the orchard here.

When I get back to the pen, I usually show Bow the footage I have shot. He watches it with interest, then asks to go outside again.

Usually Bow is quiet and happy outside, except when he thinks he sees intruders. For instance, today a young fellow on an ATV stopped by to ask if we needed our grass mowed. I told him we already have someone helping us with that. Bow was very upset that this stranger was there.

When the mowers he knows come, he wants to talk to them. He also protests if anyone he doesn't know is  helping them with their work. Everything has to be predictable, and only personnel that Bow has approved can be on the property.

If the neighbors drive heavy farm equipment with no muffler on the adjoining property, Bow gets annoyed. Of course, they have every right to do that. And Bow has every right to protest very loudly every time they do.

However, most of the time it is very quiet outside, and the birds chirp and the dogs frolic, and Bow is happy. The pea plants reach up toward the sun and send tendrils out looking for something to climb on.

I am not yet sure if it would be a good idea to allow them to climb the grid of the pen, but I bet that is already what they are plotting to do.

Bow has a snack at 3:00 pm, and we have dinner at five o'clock, and  then after clearing the dishes, we unwind. By 6:30 or so, Bow is ready to go to bed. If I delay in closing up shop in the pen, he reminds me. I sing him a lullaby and leave him with his blankets and rug, and he is happy. After Bow has gone to bed, I can go for another walk. In the dusk, birds sing their good night calls and moths flock around the redbud tree next to our house.

It's a pretty good life.