Twelve Queens in the Greenhouse

The buzzing is persistent, and really makes me and others wonder about the wasps this year. Yesterday, the local radio had a newsreport how the Cooperative Extension Service is fielding calls about the wasps, and that most of the wasps out this time of the year are the queens, looking for nest sites. If the summer is hot and dry, it might be another bad summer for the yellowjackets.

At home, I killed at least five wasps two days ago. At the garden, the plastic greenhouse blew over sometime between Monday and Wesdnesday. With the help of MK, a garden-neighbor, we righted it up, and by the time I was leaving two hours later, there were at least twelve wasps in it, since I left the zipper window open. Well, I doubt we'll get twelve nests in there, but it still surprised me how many there were. I also dug in the sides of the greenhouse and the beaver-cut logs that were holding it down, hopefully it should be set and not blow over unless we get a hurricane here.

With Sonja and the doggies, we went to the top of Ester Dome yesterday for a walk, the first in three days for the dogs. They had a ton of fun. A lot of chasing going on. Sometimes Mica reciprocated and chased Saphira, too. With Sonja, we looked at flowers up there: a nice white flower called Narcissus Anemone, based on this picture, a yellow flower that was possibly Tundra Rose based on this picture, a flower that might be described as indian paint brush, but in blue, and scruffier; and some rock flowers. I will try to get a flower book, it is ridiculous that I can't even name the few flowers we get here. The bugs were bad up at the top, so I made Sonja sit in the Chariot for the most part.

In case Martin reads this: we will have a share of a CSA this year. Just so that you know, we'll be eating a lot of fresh, locally grown veggies this summer.