Today's not much going on outside, bee-wise, as it's raining. Finally! Hopefully there will be enough water coming down during the day to refill our rain barrel, which was almost empty with all the watering of the potted plants. It's still too dry anyways for the time of year - another sign of the climate change. Sigh.

Good news, though: Yesterday was sunny and nice, and I did manage to take a few photos of the aforementioned red-listed little bee. No glorious photos, but decent enough to tell that it really is Andrena hattorfiana:



You can tell the species by the colouring of the abdomen - and the fact that the lady is gathering nectar and pollen from a specific flower genus, the Knautia flowers. Which happen to grow on our not-lawn...

Here's a second shot of the bee:



And as a bonus, an European peacock (Aglais io):



Actually it's two of them, one with closed wings is sitting right on top of the summer lilac flower.

The not-lawn is in blooming season now - almost all the wild thyme has flowers, and they are very much appreciated by a gazillion of flying insects. Which, to my great dismay, means that I actually have to wear shoes when crossing the not-lawn, or use the paved garden path, and keep to the more trodden-down other paths without bloom when going to the paved section. I got stung twice within a good week, even though I was walking very slowly and carefully, one wasp, one bee or probably bumble-bee. That is a good indicator of there being many more insects in our garden than last year, as I walked barefoot all year then and didn't get stung once!

Since I dislike wearing shoes at home, and the garden counts as "home", this does annoy me... but I can accept it due to the joy the number of bees, flies, wasps, grasshoppers, and butterflies the not-lawn brings. I even spotted one special bee that's on the red list, though I didn't manage to take a photo of it (yet).

There are some other beasties I did manage to get decent pics of, though:

[caption id="attachment_5441" align="alignnone" width="640"] Male Gallische Feldwespe (European Paper Wasp), polistes dominula. Note the yellow eyes!


That was the first time we saw one of these; that guy was quite a bit larger than the ladies of the same species, which can be identified nicely by their long, orangey legs that hang down when they fly. It's one of the many wasp species that are entirely unattracted by meat or cake; they are also far less aggressive than "the" wasp Vespula germanica.

Next up: A very distinctive ass.

[caption id="attachment_5439" align="alignnone" width="567"] Gelbbindige Furchenbiene, Great Banded Furrow bee, Halictus scabiosae.


The furrow on the abdomen is what gives the name to this kind of bee. They're a rather frequent kind of wild bee.

Next one is not a bee, but a kind of fly masquerading as a dangerous sting-posessing animal:

[caption id="attachment_5438" align="alignnone" width="902"] Probably Eristalis pertinax, a quite common kind of hoverfly.


Last one is one I haven't managed to identify yet - because there's oh-so-many different kinds of wild bees and other flying insects here in Germany. I'm actually content to roughly identify them (as in down to the genus, not necessarily the species, and not even considering the sub-species), but, well, with about 600 different species of wild bees in Germany... Sad thing, though: About half of this number is on the list of endangered species, as they are quite specific about their habitat or food plants. Which is one of the reasons I will handle wearing shoes to cross the not-lawn (and do it as little as possible).

So here's my unidentified red-ass-bottomed, ass-lifting little wild bee:



If someone happens to know what it is, please tell me!

And for the German readers among you, here's one of the many pages about wild bees in Germany, with some basic info. There'll probably be a few more posts about these small flying guys, as I'm entirely fascinated by them, and I quite enjoy going on photo safari with the macro lens!

Due to this year's special effects, there's been some more gardening than usual... and there's also been the first proper woad harvest, both seeds from the plants that are now two years old, and leaves from the new plants.

The seeds are beautiful too - I find their colours spectacular:



They are fully dry now, almost falling off the plants by themselves, and some of them are going to find their way into the shop in the next days.

The leaf harvest wasn't huge, but enough for two woad balls, and there's a portion for a third ball currently sitting in a jar, as I want to try fermenting it for a bit before forming the ball.

[caption id="attachment_5428" align="alignnone" width="488"] My very first woad balls! My hands were bright green after making these... and there was even a hint of blueishness to the green after a while.


Now the whole thing has to dry out completely, and then it can be crushed and either couched (a kind of fermentation process) or used straight away for dyeing.

[caption id="attachment_5429" align="alignnone" width="382"] More woad crushed up, and ready to ferment for a bit. (Plus bonus fresh spindle whorls in the background...)


I'm having a lot of fun finally playing around with this!

Today was busy with shopkeeping things - printing, sorting, re-stocking, and sorting stuff. Plus bringing parcels to the post office, which is one of the tasks I feel are very pleasant; not only is there a feeling of accomplishment when things are sent off, it also means a nice little walk to the post office and back, sometimes accompanied by a short hop into the shop across the road to stock up on things. Which might include something nice and sweet for the afternoon coffee.

Speaking of coffee, my little coffee plants are coming along nicely:



Some of the batch have gone to a new home (with my mum, and aunt, or friends) and I'll see how the rest does. At least this time I know that they like light, but no direct full sun, and that they need acidic soil (the lack of which probably killed them last time around).

The chili plants are also coming along, though slowly. I already had most of them moved to outside, so they'd have direct sun and fresh air and rain and overall outsideness... but they are back in the wintergarden now, after some losses.

You see, at night... the snails came. They feasted on the chilis, and also on the basil, which is the sorry blurry thing you can see in the foreground here:



Another reason for moving the plants back inside: One day, we came home from a walk and saw a hare hopping through the garden, and I'm pretty sure that he or she's to blame for two chili plants that were bitten off right above the soil! They probably won't come back, as they were still quite young... but I'm determined not to feed the hare with more of my capsicum plants, so inside they'll stay.

 

It's getting really nice, warm, and summery around here! The bees and bumblebees are visiting flowers in bloom, the raspberries are ripening, and the first tomatoes are turning red. It's a delightful time of year... so you're getting some pictures from the current state of things.

First of them all, the flowering hibiscus plant:



Outside, there's lavender and marguerites and carnations:

There's also that green space that cannot be called "lawn" anymore, on account of its lack of grass.



It's mostly a kind of wild creeping thyme these days, interspersed with taller flowers, the occasional stubborn tuft of grass, some moss, and a bare patch here or there. Because of the mass of thyme last year, together with the extreme crunchiness of most plants on the "lawn", we tried out what would happen if there was no mowing of the plants. The result was more thyme (and of course more time, too), and an astonishing plus of insects in the green space. Lots and lots of grasshoppers and cicadas, way more than before. Plus more flowering thyme, and other flowers as well.

Which means we decided to do just the same this year again, with similar results: A lush, beautiful covering of the ground with green thyme (much more dry-resistant than grass, by the way), lots of flowers feeding lots of insects which are supporting more birds in their turn. Last year there was one pass with the lawn-mower in the autumn, to clean things up a little bit, and probably we'll do the same this year. Not mowing also means that there is more space for more pretty wild flowers... so yay for a tiny bit of wilderness in the middle of civilisation!

There's new shiny things here! Well, actually they are not shiny at all...

Almost exactly four weeks ago, I ate a passionfruit and then placed the seeds into a little dish with soil. I did manage to keep it moist for the four weeks, and guess what has now started to germinate?



Right! Now I'm very curious to see if they will grow, and survive, and maybe even flower at some point.

Another thing that is now finally sprouting, after weeks of hanging out in the soil, is this avocado seed:



And finally, also new, also not shiny, but still delighting me a lot - new spindle whorls have arrived, and I've taken some photos already, to update those in the online shop.



There's now a wider range of weights available, from around 9 g (and very few even lighter ones) to up to 50 g. New stone whorls are also here, and taking pictures of them is on my list for tomorrow...

 

I've encountered a few bonus technical problems while editing, so you're getting this picture of our current guest in the wintergarden:



She seems to like it there... apparently both the nasturtium leaves and the mexican mini-cucumbers are to her taste. At least that's what we assume from the holes in them!