Honeybee on Sunflower

Fall sunflowers bring so much brightness to the garden. As the sunflowers begin to open and mature in the middle, the bees flock to the colorful flowers to taste of the plentiful pollen.

Each morning and afternoon when checking the garden for new flowers opening, I saw plenty of honeybees buzzing among the flowers. They especially loved to visit the wide face of the sunflowers. One honeybee would spend up to five minutes visiting different sections of the sunflowers as it collected the soft yellow pollen.

I imagine the honeybees being happy little insects after visiting the happily colored sunflower. Do happy honeybees produce more delicious honey?

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Tiny Frog Among the Geraniums

When watering the flowers in your planter, you never know what will surprise you among the leaves. One day, my neighbor was watering her geraniums when all of a sudden this little green frog jumped out from among the leaves. While the water was probably a surprise to him, I'm sure he enjoyed the refreshing liquid on a warm evening.

Rodrigo the Frog had a long journey - he had been playing in the bushes at his house when his human family lost track of him. Rodrigo was a brave soul and hopped through yards and across streets, until he found a nice patch of green leaves to nestle into. I'm not sure how long he was hiding out in the geraniums before my neighbor was surprised by her unexpected guest.

He spent a nice evening having a photo shoot and being oohed and aahed over by my children. His family was eventually found and he said "goodbye" then returned to his home. What a lovely adventure for a little frog!

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Bee Sitting on Lavender

This year, the lavender bush by my front porch has exploded with blossoms. The purple flowers are beautiful to look at and smell so wonderful and inviting too. I'm not the only one to think so. Little fuzzy bumblebees and white delicate butterflies have been flitting around the flowers all week. Who can blame them though - the days are warm, the flowers are fragrant, and the sprigs of lavender are the perfect place for them to rest and collect pollen.

Our winter lasted quite long this year - we had snow into May, which was a big surprise. My lavender plants looked quite sad and I worried that they wouldn't bloom. I'm not the best gardener and didn't prune back the dead flowers when my lavender plant bloomed last fall. While that made an interesting subject for winter photography, it worried me for the health of the plant this spring. The week after our last snow of the year, I removed the dried stems from the plant. I'm happy to say that my lavender plant has more than doubled it's size from last year.

While I water my plants on my porch, I always make time to watch the bees as they go from stem to stem looking for the perfect pollen to take back to their hive. I imagine that honey would taste wonderful!

I've picked a few sprigs to add to the hanging welcome basket by my front door and I love how it looks! I think this year I will have enough flowers to collect to make delightful and fragrant sachets.

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Lobster at Cabrillo Beach California

Last fall my family took a trip to California. We visited Cabrillo Beach in the LA area. We pulled into the parking lot and got ready to head down to the sand and waves.

On our walk to the beach, two surfers asked if we wanted to see something cool. We headed over and one pulled this lobster out of the back of their truck! They had been over by the pier and caught this guy and a fish. How cool!

This lobster was still moving around and it was so neat to see. He kindly let me take a photo, which was wonderful because I didn't want to forget this unique experience!

To see more photos from our Day in Los Angeles - visit here

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