I have just returned from the pharmacy with a filled script and two bottles of Woodbridge Pinot Noir --from nearby Lodi. I still have not convinced my medigap insurance to let me buy wine at discount with a small co-pay --even at a pharmacy! I mean, is this California or isn't it? Well, perhaps by way of apology, they did send me some free face masks with their logo on them --quite comfortable and considerate of wearers who must inhale air sometimes, in addition to containing their own expectorants.
So yes, I've been outdoors, leaving my shoes in the mudroom --Norma Law, cannot be rescinded-- and reentered our house shoeless but undefeeted-- which reminds me this post was intended to be about bees, or something with lots of "e's" in it. Recent Normaphoto above is of a pumpkin flower and a bee who says, "Hmm." They say that a lot. He heads into this giant blossom in hopes of big rewards. Then something topples and he says, "Oops!"....
...and activates his antennae. Standard distress call is received and prioritized. Reply:"On my way. What is the nature of your emergency?"
"I'm trapped under a toppled stigma."
"Oooh that sounds serious."
"Could be a style, stamen or sizable ovary."
"En route!"
" I'm in the nectary at the floral axis and need a hand getting out."
"Hand?"
"Oh that hooky thing on your foreleg, the one you use to groom your antennas."
"Ah, understood!"
"Ewww no! that's your tongue!"
"Sorry, they're all about the same length. I'm sure many creatures have trouble telling them apart."
"That's what they all say...Hey I think we got some leverage here!
"YES!I feel the barriers shifting! I'm Free! How'd we do that?"
"Do what?"
"I dunno. Bees don't have a lot of memory."
"'Cause why?"
"'Cause Shut Up. That's why!"
"Dang, I do believe we're evolving."
***********************************
I dedicate this post to the rude imposition
of Google Blogger's new and incomprehensible
format. Anybody else having problems?
Brilliant, as always, Geo...😂😂
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely...the new format has made everything much more complicated. Some blogs I visit have lost their comment forms!
I say...if it's working ok, just leave it alone!!😬
Hope you are both ok...and are staying safe and happy.😊
Most kind, dear Ygraine! The buzz is, google is using the new format to replace the very workable classic (or Legacy) format as a free default system. Then charge users an (as yet undisclosed) amount to to return to it. We can return to it now without charge, but that will end soon. I suspect the motive is to augment advertising revenue with monetary exploitation of users.
DeleteYes, we are ok here. Trust you are too.
In terms of the 'new and better' blog format, I chose 'not to bee', and figured out how to revert to the old format. Haven't checked today to see if it remains changed back or not.
ReplyDeletePersevere.
Dear Mike, they took over my Blogger format yesterday and I was hours trying to find that "revert to Legacy (or Classic?)" thing on a part of the dashboard I'd never gone to before. Even then, I didn't know what I was doing because instructions were written foggy pooter-jargon, but finally managed it. So far so good. Hope our efforts endure.
DeleteYou have made my day. That was a fun story.
ReplyDeleteDear Emma, I do believe you've just made my day too. I was so confusticated and bebothered by belligerent Bloggeration, I had to write some fun afterward. It is my well-earned privilege and pleasure to share it.
DeleteIt wouldn't surprise me if this is the actual conversation that took place. Animals communicate in so many ways!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos. My compliments to Norma. And to you for the delightful story.
I tried the new Blogger just long enough to ensure I can still do what I already do, which is not much. Other folks who are more discriminating bloggers have found much lacking in it. And as of late August, we will all be switched over whether we like it or not - an unpleasant reality when the platform is free. *weeps quietly in the corner*
O_Jenny, Norma thanks you, as do I. I hadn't elected to try new Blogger; it crept up on me in the early hours, unannounced. Yes, I too retreated and wept softly. Then anger woke, my fist went up and lightning struck the church steeple...sorry, I indulge in rare exaggeration. What really happened was the sunset made a silhouette of me and, after my line,"I'll NEVAH be hungry again!!!" the music came up and it was intermission.
DeleteIf Google is backpeddling from "late June, late July" to late August, it seems I'm not the only one invoking Gone With The Wind. You think maybe we're still in intermission?
Bees is amazing critters. And quite humanitarian, it seems. Or would that be beemanitarian. There is a simple way to go back to "Classic Blogger", which I did by pushing a button in the left hand side that says something like "revert to legacy blogger".
ReplyDeleteIndeed, dear Bruce, they are amazing. I did, at length, find that button way down the left side under "Reading List" --farther than I'd ever ventured down there before. I recommend your method to all less adventurous explorers like me. It works!
DeleteExcept if you read the fine print from Blogger, it only works temporarily ... In late August no one will have a choice anymore. (weeps some more)
DeleteDear Jenny, I know we'll all resent having to pay Google for the "classic/legacy" format that brought us to Blogger in the first place, and using the "new" format as "free" default will make us jump through lots of extra hoops. However, if we can negotiate some workable compromise (like carrying ads we've so far declined), it might satisfy their corporate greed somewhat. Their "notice", which appears above my composition screen invites us to "file any critical issues" with their scheme, followed by a clickable "read more" that rambles on authoritatively about nothing in particular. So basically you have no place to criticize constructively or otherwise. But don't weep, Jenny. We'll get through this. We got smart people here; we'll think of something.
DeleteBees are magical creatures, as long as they don't sting me. I told my children when they were small that it didn't hurt much (no big deal) and then found out through painful experience that it actually does!
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling, Margaret. I was stung once by a bee as I walked barefoot on him in the summer of 1954. Poor bee. In my many decades as a gardener I found bees friendly and nonaggressive, but ground-wasps were something else. I remember mowing at a grammar school and alarming a colony! I leapt over a 4-foot fence without touching it and raced for the van in the parking lot. The swarm flew against the window and windshield trying to get at me. My partner, Sam, took me to the loo and picked off 3 wasps still in my clothes. I'd been stung 13 times. All in a day's work I guess. It increased my affection for peace-loving bees.
DeleteIf you're fond of bees, a documentary I cannot recommend highly enough: More Than Honey. It's a German film. Quite good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the alert, Squid. I AM fond of bees, and they've always been conditionally tolerant of me.
DeleteThey are amazing critters. According to the movie, a full 1/3 of human food is dependent on bees.
DeleteThat's what I've heard, Squid --a conservative estimate. My bees insist it's 2/3rds,"because there's 2 of us."
DeleteHaha! Very good.
DeleteIt's an astonishing amount, whichever portion. The human capacity to act against our own interests is truly astonishing, and perhaps unprecedented in world ecology?
Well-said, and sadly true.
DeleteTell Norma, the photos are amazing. They usually are.
DeleteHere bee drama! The way bees work is so much more sensible than the human mess. I think I have surfed through the Blogger transition, would rather not carry ads but also would rather use a free platform as fortunes change and low outgoings help.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos, all the squashes have such bold flowers :-)
Drama indeed, dear Lisa! I understand Blogger retreating from its old free forum shaped in an idealistic comingling of mass-communications and liberty in a simpler century. It was in part revolution. However, it sure sold personal computers and other advertisers noticed. Conveyed your generous compliment to the photographer --she deserves it.
DeleteHello from a first-time visitor, who had actually petted a bee. It sounds odd, but after reading that they sleep on flowers, I had to try it, and did, but only very briefly as The fear of being stung was stronger than my curiosity. Now I let sleeping bees lie.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the new blogger interface is not better. Going by the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” way if thinking, I have reverted to Legacy after a short tryout. Like many others, I have had issues some described in a recent post.
Welcome, Beatrice! I understand your affection for bees completely. I gardened 37 years for a living. One site involved trimming 1/2 mile of Bottlebrush for 26 years -til retirement-- and, although it was cloudy with bees, they never stung me. Sometimes they sat on my hat brim or shoulder and hummed away --they were never aggressive.
DeleteOh, that's lovely, Geo: the bee-story and Norma's photos! Their conversation makes me think of Winnie-the-Pooh - when Pooh tried to outsmart the bees...
ReplyDeleteCheers to the Pinot Noir! Have a good time!
Dear lovely Britta, thanks so much from Norma and me! I have had many close encounters with bees, but have never complicated them with balloons or fallen into a gorse bush. Cheers to you too!
DeleteIt is interesting to contemplate if bees recognize they are sex surrogates for the flowers.
ReplyDeletePipeTobacco