Flyin'....and Bees

It's flyin'....time, that is!  Can you believe it is the last day of April already?  Of course, you can...you read the calendar like I just did!  But this month has seemed to fly by at extraordinary speeds....full of celebrations (Easter and Christ's resurrection, my mom and dad's 67th wedding anniversary and birthdays galore...mine, included), new life (flowers and gardens just bursting with promise), destruction (the terrible tornados that have caused so much devastation and heartache), a wedding (in case you missed it....which I did...4 a.m. just wasn't doing it for me), and the bee-ginning of our bee-keeping experience (pun intended)!

Early Thursday morning, Willie and I drove over to K&K to pick up his package of bees and a few other supplies....but not before having his hive and setup checked out earlier in the week by Joe, his mentor.

 

I couldn't begin to tell you how many "package" of bees were in the back of Kenny's (the first K of K&K) truck, but if I hazard a guess...well, at least 130 of these babies.

Care to take a wild guess at how many bees are in three pounds (which is what we are starting out with)? Post your guesses and the closest one to the correct answer will get a free pint of honey....that is, after they start producing, we start harvesting....AND you come for a visit.  Did I forget to say that there were "strings attached"?!!  You also understand that we may very well not get any honey this year, so your prize could be a very delayed one....but it's all in fun, anyway!

The new beekeeper.....

 Spraying them down with sugar water...

 See that little matchbox-sized box they're peering at so intently?  THAT'S the queen!

And that's Willie dumping ?????????? (how many?) bees into the hive after the queen was in place.

 And now our newest residents are busy making themselves at home....it's been fun to watch them scout out the area.....checking everything out.  We'll keep you updated on their...and our...progress!

Surprises....!

These are just a few of the surprises we have seen in and around our yard in the last couple of weeks.  As I've shared before, it is exciting to see what comes up and blooms in the spring since the first time we ever saw the house was last fall!   We never know from one day to the next what new discovery awaits!

We were pleasantly surprised to see the daffodils and grape hyacinths...but the tulips, oh, yeah....I loooove me some tulips! 

The iris have already set a few buds....can't wait to see what color they are.  Let's see...I also discovered quite a few lily of the valley in several different places....especially this bed back by the shed

(don't worry...we WILL be finding a bowl for the bird bath).  We have a number of flowering fruit trees...hmmm, wonder what we'll have besides apples. 

Sure hope it isn't peaches since I am allergic!

The dogwood we finally deduced was a dogwood is beginning to bloom...still the greenish "brackets", but it should be a beautiful white in the next few days.  It is growing right beside one of the support columns for the back entry porchway and is VERY straight for a dogwood.  I'm thinking we might have to move it so it will have room to stretch and grow.

AND in a very ironic twist, I find I have several lilacs on the side of the house!  Understand, I said I would NEVER have lilacs (hated picking my own switches from the lilac bush when I was a kid)....guess things come full circle, tho' all grandkids can rest easy...no switches from MY lilac bushes!

In addition to all the lovely flowering and blooming things we have discovered in our yard, we encountered this fuzzy little creature last week while cleaning up one of the back landscape beds....

And then this morning, we saw this bluebird pair on top of....of all, things

...the bluebird house!  We loved watching the male go fetch the worm and then bring it back to the female.  Whatcha wanna bet it was going to go into the mouths of some hungry little birds inside that house?  I like to think so, anyway!

Here's hoping you have some neat "discoveries" this week.

Luuuuuv those flowers!

A trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC affords countless opportunities to take great photos...after all, it is kinda' hard to take a bad picture when beauty surrounds on every side.  Here are a few of my favorites from our last trip....

If you're not in overload mode yet, you can check out more photos here.  Tomorrow I'll try to update you on the natural beauty surprises in our own "backyard"...and front yard, too.!

Biltmore Photos

FYI - During our trip over to Biltmore yesterday, I checked with the registration and guest services and was told that not only was I allowed to post photos from our vists there but that it was encouraged....good publicity, right?!   So prepare yourself for a barrage of Biltmore photos over the next several months.  Click here for more from our first visit (in February) and check back soon for some from our trip yesterday.  Can I just say tulips, tulips, tulips and more tulips?  It was a tulip explosion, and I loved it!

Signs of Spring

While I was away, spring slipped into eastern Tennessee!  Willie even took some photos for me of our yard so that I didn't totally miss it all....

Actually, this is at the entrance to our street, not in our yard....but pretty, nonethless!

I just LOOOOOOOOVE spring!!