How are you today? All well I hope 💖 Our furbaby Jade and I are having a quiet day today, just like we do most days actually I suppose 😊
We've had an especially fun few days in the garden, with one of my favourite activities this week so far setting up a new drinking station in the garden for our visiting bees & butterflies.
Do you remember last summer we set about trying to attract more bees and butterflies and ladybirds and... well everything really 😃 to our garden honeys? Well, it worked! I love watching through the kitchen windows for the birds, and our two regular squirrel visitors, every morning after I top up their food supplies.
Butterflies are still very rare unfortunately, so far this year I've only seen one single beautiful butterfly in the garden and that's just heartbreaking. I remember as a child seeing so many butterflies all through summer. I'll add a link to the end of this post honeys if you'd like to find out more about the UKs butterflies and moths, the struggles they're facing and what you can do in your gardens to help.
Our buzzy friends have been in my mind quite a lot recently, more so since I was (nearly) adopted by an adorable little bee a few days ago 🐝
Why not meet me back here in a few minutes with a cuppa (and maybe a cookie) and I'll tell all dear ones ☕🍪 See you in a mo...
Back again honeys? Do you have your cuppa? Cool, me too ☕🍪 Why not sit back, put your feet up and enjoy your cuppa while I tell you how we were (nearly) adopted 😃
Rosie And The (Nearly) Pet Bee 🐝
Well, it all started a few days ago, early last Friday morning to be exact. Hubby had already left for work, so it was around 7am and I was back upstairs, having already been in the garden to make sure our garden birds had enough food. So, I was happily sitting in bed reading my book when I heard a familiar "bzzzzzzz...." noise coming from the direction of the window.
It's been unusually warm for a while now honeys and yes, most places expect warm temperatures during the Summer months but this is Scotland and our weather is anything but predictable 😃
We have lavender in the back garden, which our buzzy friends🐝 seem to enjoy, and occasionally they fly up from it, find our open bedroom window and pop in to say hello 😊 The thing is, once they fly in they do seem to have issues with finding the same bit of window to fly out of again.
Assuming this had happened (it's pretty regular) I put my book down on the bedside table and went over to open the curtains, open the window out and let our visitor find her way out again. So, having opened the curtains, expecting to see a small visitor bobbing against the glass, I was surprised when the bzzzzzz stopped! I looked all around the window, corners, top edge, nope. Nobody there.
"Oh well" I thought, she's found her way out again or maybe she was outside the whole time and didn't come in. Back to reading my book...
No sooner did I settle down to read than the familiar bzzzzzzz noise started again! Jade was by now looking in the direction of the window too, since either the buzzing or her Mum getting up to walk over to the window had disturbed her nap on the end of the bed.
Again I went over and opened the curtains. Again the noise stopped and there wasn't a trace of a buzzy guest! I closed the curtains and almost immediately the buzzing started again. The curtains in our master bedroom are a heavy fabric and also lined too so I can't actually see through them to spot any flying movement on the other side, so again I opened the curtains. You guessed it, the buzzing stopped and again not a sign of life.... until that is I spotted movement at the top of the curtains and sure enough.... there she was!
I assume our visitor was "standing" on the curtain fabric and that each time I opened the curtains she disappeared into a fold where (for her) it went dark and so she'd stop buzzing. Then I'd close them again and she'd have daylight and would buzz again. I can only imagine it must have been very confusing for the wee soul 🐝
So, there she was sitting at the top edge of the curtains looking at me (I swear!) and having guessed at what happened I, of course, apologised to her and unlatched the bedroom window, opening it out as far as it would go. After a minute or so she took off from the curtain but rather than fly out the window, she flew a couple of times around the bedroom before landing and sitting back on the top edge of the curtain again, looking at me (I swear!)
She stayed there for a minute or two and then did it again. Another little circuit around the bedroom and again coming to a rest on the top edge of the curtain. By this time I'm having a full on conversation with her (don't judge, I also talk to my roses :) while also pointing out of the fully opened window.
"Go on honey .... the window's open, off you go.... it's safe to fly out! No glass in the way..... off you go then..... look there's lovely lavender out there....." If the neighbours heard me I'm fairly certain they wouldn't be surprised, as I said, I talk to my roses now and again 😊
Again she landed on top of the curtains, and sat there, looking at me (I swear!) This was when I decided I had to sit down next to Jade on the bed. My hip, which I hurt recently, was starting to yell at me and much as I wanted to help our wee guest find freedom, she didn't seem in a hurry to leave and my hip was getting really ouchy.
I sat down on the edge of the bed watching her and she sat on the top edge of the curtain, looking at me (I swear!) and after another minute or so she flew down off the top of the curtain and flew out the open window. Not even a goodbye or a wee wave! I actually felt quite disappointed when she left. I'd started pondering names for her if she had indeed decided to join the family 🐝
It was a strange way to spend a half hour or so, talking to a buzzy guest trying to convince her to fly out the window and then missing her when she did 😊
Creating (Another) Drinking Station For Garden Guests
Under our blueberry shrub in the garden, which is pretty much Central Station for all of our garden visitors because the shrub itself was planted as a food source for the birds and the bees do tend to hover around there too very often, well under that shrub are two containers with water already but I decided, after almost being "adopted" by our buzzy guest that maybe another little drinking station might not be amiss.
Unfortunately that day, and the next I had a long, very tiring shift at work, both running very late into the evening and as always happens recently, I was left very drained by them. So, yesterday, when I finally started to feel a little better, I decided I'd re-visit the water situation and Jade and I had some fun setting up another little drinking station for our garden guests.
Collecting Supplies
First thing to find was a reasonably shallow container to act as the base of our drinking fountain. We want it to be deep enough to hold the drinking water but shallow enough that they don't become trapped when they fly in for a drink.
I went off into the cupboard in search of a container and spotted this one...
I bought it a while ago, it's made of melamine and seemed the right depth for water but also shallow enough too. I decided to use this plate because, to be honest, my hip was starting to yell from the kneeling and leaning into the cupboard and I might well look into providing better water sources in out garden than the containers we have now, which have to be brought in and washed before being set up again.
I have a feeling that each time I move something in the garden it might take our garden guests some time to "trust" it again. As I said honeys, I'm now on the look out for a longer lasting, and still safe method for them to use as a water source in our garden. I'll keep you posted on what I find, for now though I know that these little water stations work and even our tiny garden birds seem to like them too 💚
Having found a suitable container, we then needed some pebbles, stones, something for the bees, butterflies (and tiny garden birds) to stand on while having a drink.
These "stepping stones" will also keep them safe by serving as a way to escape if they fall into the water. I remembered that I still had a bag of stones in my crafting supplies crate. I've recently been having the most fun painting these as.... you guessed it, ladybirds and bees 😊
Having fetched the bag of stones, I opened the bag and picked out a few stones that looked as if they might make good "stepping stones"
Next task was to thoroughly wash them. I'm always surprised when I wash stones how dirty they are, even if they don't look it. Even before painting I always wash them and allow them to dry.
Once washed, I arranged the stones onto the plate and set off out into the garden to find the perfect place for them...
Setting Up The Tiny Oasis...
Having decided to place the plate under what seems to be the busiest part of our garden, the blueberry shrub, I picked what is (hopefully) the perfect spot, under the bee hotel hanging on the fence behind the shrub, and once in place, I added water...
I went out to check on it this morning and found it needed to be topped up with fresh water and that, sure enough, a couple of our tiny garden birds were having fun and enjoying the water too 😊
Above the now popular little oasis from the warm temperatures is the bee hotel Hubby attached to the fence for me last summer and the blueberry shrub has now grown so high it almost hides it away from sight...
The birds have been eating the blueberries but as you can see honeys there are still lots left. I've just noticed in the image above there is a tiny snail on the fence near the bee hotel 🐌 I hadn't noticed him when I snapped this photo 😊
It's been a great year again in the garden. The apple tree is so full of apples again too.
Do you remember last year's crop of apples honeys? Our tiny garden has been blessed and I'm grateful that we're able to share it with our little garden guests and also with our neighbours too in a few weeks, when the apples are ready to harvest and I can set about making huge apple crumbles to share 🍎🍏
Every morning, around 5am, I wake up to the birds singing, reminding me to go out and check they still have enough food out there and it always makes me smile 😊 We've had lots of baby birds too this year 💖 I managed to snap this photo through the kitchen window one morning, it's not the best quality but I love it anyway and I hope that it makes you smile too 😄
Have you made a water fountain for the bees and butterflies honeys? Bees are so precious, they're so important to our eco system and they need our help very badly just as many of our tiny garden birds do too.
I've found some interesting articles honeys:
Links
The State of Britain's Butterflies from Butterfly Conservation who do such wonderful work on raising awareness of butterflies and moths.
Why Are Bees Important And How You Can Help Them by The Woodland Trust
10 Reasons Why Bees Are Important by BuzzAboutBees.net There is so, so much to see and read at this cool site honeys, this article also has a great video embedded on the page too.
What To Do When You've Found A Bee Who Needs Help again by BuzzAboutBees.net Wonderful page chock full of information on what to do if you find a bee needing help.
How To Encourage Bees To Visit Your Garden - a post I wrote last Summer, there are lots of links in it on how to help not only bees but also our feathered garden guests too x
I hope you're having the best week honeys, till next time, hugs always x
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