I was just walking by a window that overlooks my front flower beds. I have given up on these beds. For some strange reason such as microclimate or the gods laughing at me, nothing will grow in these beds but huge weeds. Like 5 foot tall weeds of wonderful diversity. For years I’ve tried different plants but they get broken by wind at ground level while the weeds prosper. So this year I gave up and let the weeds win. I now have 4 – 5 foot tall thistles blooming all along the front of my house.

As I walked by the window I saw some motion. There is a group of honeybees gathering nectar from the thistle blossoms. We’ve always had a lot of bees here especially bumblebees. But this year I’ve only seen one huge bumblebee and no honeybees. I was hoping we’d be spared from the effects of colony collapse disorder but apparently not.

But they are back. It is a relatively small group but they are working hard. There is also the smallest bee that I have ever seen. It is smaller than the heads of the other ones. It must be just hatched. It is trying its hardest but the big bees keep pushing it away from blossoms. When the big bees just fly past it the air turbulence throws it around.

Hopefully this is a sign that the bees in this area are recovering.