Spring Brings Flowers... Along With Something Else

The weather has been fantastic lately.  Cool mornings with brilliant sunshine and the bluest skies you've ever seen.  The rains really invigorated growth on all of the plants, most noticeably Tricia's roses, by activating the rose fertilizer that I sprinkled around the base of the roses.  Her white rose bit the dust last year, but the yellow and pink roses are as happy as pigs in mud.

The pink rose yields a beautiful flower - just about as perfect as you can imagine.

The yellow rose isn't as perfect in shape or symmetry, but it has a really nice fragrance.  The pink one has no scent at all.

Flowers attract appreciation by others that aren't human.  Bees!  Bees are everywhere right now.  Tricia brought it to my attention, much to her chagrin, that our colony of bees (or columny of bees!) has moved back into the column that supports our side porch.  Tricia doesn't like the bees living there as it is not hospitable to guest to have swarming bees by the door that greets most of our visitors.

After the bees left the column last fall, it was my job to get caulk and fill up the crack between the top of the column and the ceiling so that it blocked their entrance.  My intentions were good.  My follow-through was not.  I put one layer of caulking along the bottom and decided I would let it dry before putting the second layer.

But the problem is, I never got back around to putting the second (and third layers).  Those two layers would have completely blocked the bees' re-entry to their home in the column.  Next time they move out, maybe I'll completely patch up the holes.  While Tricia doesn't like them in the column, I love having them there as they pollinate our garden and fruit trees.